British racing driver (born 1961)
Perry Edward McCarthy
(born 3 March 1961) is a British
racing driver
, who drove for the
Andrea Moda
team in
Formula One
in
1992
, though never making it into a race, before moving into
sportscars
, including driving in the
24 Hours of Le Mans
five times between 1996 and 2003.
McCarthy also portrayed
The Stig
in the first two series of the revamped version of BBC motoring show
Top Gear
.
Career
[
edit
]
Born in
Stepney
,
East London
,
[1]
McCarthy grew up to work for his father's company servicing
North Sea
oil rigs
. Unlike most
Formula One
drivers, McCarthy did not start racing in
karts
. He worked his way through the junior categories of motor sport in
Europe
, such as
Formula Ford
,
Formula 3
, eventually
F3000
and various touring and sports car races in the US, including drives for
Spice Engineering
.
In 1991, McCarthy was chosen to test for the
Footwork
Formula One team. Although he impressed the team, his break did not come until the eve of the 1992 Formula One season, when he was signed by the independent
Andrea Moda
team run by Andrea Sassetti who thought that entering Formula One would be a good way to advertise his shoe business. The team was uncompetitive, disorganized and poorly managed, and after a lengthy battle to gain a
FIA
Super Licence
the season soon descended into farce.
[2]
Because Sassetti was unable to release McCarthy for
Enrico Bertaggia
, who had left the team before and attempted to return with the promise of extra funding, McCarthy received unfair treatment from the owner, being frequently denied more than a handful of laps in which to prepare, which led to his failure to qualify for any Grand Prix. His Grand Prix debut in
Spain
lasted eighteen metres down the pit lane in pre-qualifying before the engine failed. In the
British Grand Prix
, he was sent out with wet tyres on a dry track. For the
Hungarian Grand Prix
, he was only allowed to leave the pits 45 seconds before the end of the pre-qualifying session, which made it impossible for him to set a lap time even if he had a faster car. Finally, in the
Belgian Grand Prix
, Andrea Moda's final entry, McCarthy was sent out for the qualifying session with a broken steering part in his car, which had been extracted from teammate
Roberto Moreno
's car, which would have led to a violent crash at the Raidillon curve had McCarthy not managed to regain control of the car.
[3]
The team folded before the end of the season in controversial circumstances and McCarthy was left without a drive. In a July 2004 interview with
The Times
, McCarthy discussed how this period in his career had contributed to his being dubbed the world's unluckiest racing driver, saying "
Dick Dastardly
had more luck than me".
[2]
McCarthy did not race in Formula One after 1992, but tested for both
Williams
and
Benetton
teams during the 1990s. He was denied a permanent role as test driver at Benetton because he was covering for their normal test driver,
Alessandro Zanardi
, who was unwell. He had little success at Williams because he did not see eye to eye with the engineers and the position was then given to
David Coulthard
.
Top Gear
[
edit
]
After a brief retirement, McCarthy returned to sports car racing, appearing at
Le Mans
in 2002 and numerous other events. In 2002, he released his autobiography entitled
Flat Out, Flat Broke
, in which he spoke candidly about his time in Formula One and, in the second edition, his work for the
BBC
's
Top Gear
motoring show as
The Stig
, a masked, anonymous, racing driver who evaluated the latest high performance cars.
[4]
McCarthy was the original, black-suited Stig, who left after the first two series. He provided commentary on F1 races for the BBC in 2009.
[5]
McCarthy now works as a corporate ambassador and after-dinner speaker for corporations around the world.
[6]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
In 2002, McCarthy wrote an autobiography, titled
Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!
; it detailed his career, and the hardships he faced while trying to break into
Formula One
. In the second edition of this book, McCarthy revealed that he was
Top Gear
'
s
The Stig
.
[7]
Racing record
[
edit
]
Complete International Formula 3000 results
[
edit
]
(
key
)
Complete Formula One results
[
edit
]
(
key
)
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Media offices
|
New title
|
The Stig
2002 - 2003
|
Succeeded by
|