Renault F1 2004 onboard at Top Gear Test track with Stig

[@TheTripol]

For anyone wondering, this is Heikki Kovalainen, he was the renaults test driver during the 2004 season :)

[@dons1932]

TheTripol I believe it was actually Julian Bailey, another tester.

[@dons1932]

I don't think it was their official race tester though, rather an available person with strong connections at the time. If I remember right, Ben Collins mentioned Julian in his book, when they wouldn't let him drive it as The Stig.

[@zolivarga9873]

Frank Montagny was the test driver. Villeneuve just got a chance from Briatore for the last races because they've already agreed with Toyota for replacing Olivier Panis with Jarno Trulli for the rest of the season.

[@zeyzerx3722]

Mr. Man Shumacher only became the stig in the FXX lap because that FXX is his and no one is allowed to use it but him

[@gn01036238]

no , it's the Stig.

[@LW0001]

All we know is… He is not The Stig, but he is The Stig’s Finnish cousin!

[@paolociarpaglini9492]

59 seconds, and was wet in some corners !!. That' can a F1, THE IMPOSSIBLE BECOME REAL !!. Amazing, simply amazing..

[@KandiKlover]

I wonder what the time would've been dry and with slick tires.

[@Clangokkuner]

@@KandiKlover the car was on slicks???

[@kerimca98]

@@Clangokkuner I'm pretty sure not, the track is wet

[@gustavo_paganelli]

@@Clangokkuner I think he meant non-grooved slicks

[@psplus2593]

watching this in 2021 doesn't matter if 144p / 240p .. still an awesome video

[@FarmYardGaming]

Even in a resolution like this it's eye-candy

[@blainy-o93]

@MochaF1 This was filmed in 2004, therefore it is the R24. Richard Hammond drove the R25.

[@Demidar665]

and imagine it being driven on a dry track with a driver who is currently in f1

[@aogracing660]

Alonso on a sunny day! That would have been sick!

[@jaredtallott9950]

Need a minute to Breathe just hold on. God that sounds like Angry angry Bees and Thunder.

[@ClaudiaShifferLA]

Who is Stig? because he must be an ex-professional F1 driver, because you must have great skills to drive a F1 in wet like he does it.

[@bimba4223]

+carrionfernandez he's ben collins, do some research

[@goodshipkaraboudjan]

For this lap it was Heikki Kovalianen.

[@KitKitChanIsaac]

Aryton Senna faked his death confirmed???

[@samsav2866]

In an episode we’re stig took his helmet off it was shumi

[@samjesus8]

@@samsav2866 nah that was when he drove the FXX cause ferarri didnt allow anyone else, in this lap the F1 car it was the test driver at that time, kovalienen

[@imranabdi4051]

This is the top gear track innit

[@seanxprt]

Don't forget that Renault would have limited the revs on the car as well as it being in wet conditions. It still smashed all times by at least 10 seconds.

[@crimnlbt1349]

wonder what an F2004 Ferrari (MSC) on dry weather could've done :D

[@wccrispy]

3 words: ...in the wet.

[@KingAliTheG]

That's 4 words

[@nelsondawson9706]

***** it is three

[@NoTraceOfSense]

59 seconds. in the wet.

[@Mclaren_Mercedes_MP4_16]

And not even using Wet tires! He is just running on the cut slicks

[@wccrispy]

@@Mclaren_Mercedes_MP4_16 Dang my dude. My comment was from 10 years ago. 🤣

[@RyuChief]

The days where F1 cars were still amazing! 2017 might bring some hope back again...

[@TempProj]

Eh dont count on it

[@YszapHun]

this comment aged poorly

[@RyuChief]

@@YszapHun Well, maybe 2022? Atleast 2021 was entertaining! :D

[@cay7809]

@@RyuChief uh

[@zzgaming29]

Might as well continue the chain, maybe 2026 will be the turning point we need.

[@thestonecoldandy]

Because if u watched the preview of this, he says this is the car alonso used in the last three races of 2004

[@kerimca98]

0:58 The microphone shit themselves as it approaches that corner

[@michaelroberts2023]

If this is heikkie kovalainen, then this lap was pretty impressive from him considering that he had only driven an f1 car once before, and i think that was a test drive in 2000. Also, it was another three years before heikki came into f1, and the track was wet, so all things considered, really impressive.

[@ordnas1234]

@sonyvaio980 Even in monza f1 drivers use 1st gear in the first chicane for example!

[@Kulkieeeee]

After watching the bac mono vid the straights in the f1 car are so short! Also that second to last corner is completely blind at f1 height

[@kerimca98]

I wonder if higher quality version exists

[@cocorocks88]

@sonyvaio980 F1 drivers do use 1st gear at alot of slow corners, search mark webbers track guides n you'll see.

[@formula1nh]

On GT5, you just struggle to put power down in the hammerhead, especially when doing that Lotus event where you start right at the back from a rolling start and try to at least finish 6th for bronze, but I accidently finished 1st.

[@sergiokem]

@MochaF1 2004 car, R24. See the front wing of the R25 and the front wing of the R24. That's the R24.

[@nunslittletoy]

I doubt that, the track isn't long enough or fast enough to have such a big difference to dry times. Probably would have been 55 - 57 at best.

[@dekster14LP]

@WildKartDD2 Noo 2004 car. (it is said that Kovalainen drove it that day btw)

[@CatalinIonut98]

unbelievable car and driver!

[@ProEmixam]

How do you know ?

[@xismxist]

59 sec on wet track is still very good but im sure that schumacher, in his prime, would done this under 50 sec - on a dry track ofc

[@turbiini7137]

this driver Heikki Kovalainen 🤗

[@ISirSmoke]

@sonyvaio980 you are so wrong. f1 cars can go up to 160kph in 1st gear.

[@DiZh0]

You really fell for it? The stig was Ben Collins. Except for that 1 episode cause 1 it was around the time Ben Collins as gonna reveal the secret and BBC didnt want to help the selling of his book. 2 also the same episode they tested the Ferrari FXX around the track. Which Michael owns 1 of and Ferrari probably wanted their driver to set the lap so they know its pushed to the limit

[@rallymaniac92]

Imagine how much faster he could have been if the track had been fully dry!

[@ISirSmoke]

@sonyvaio980 every track has atleast 1 corner that is taken @ 100kph i see that you play f1 2010, u never use 1st gear ?

[@thestonecoldandy]

If you brought a 2010 f1 car here. I wonder if the red bull could take the follow through flat out?

[@whitefalken87]

I couldn't even drive this car fast enough to get the downforce I'd need let alone drive it as fast as this. Highly impressive from someone who's never put an F1 car on the limit (which he certainly did, especially in the last two corners).

[@tomcat3879]

スティグ何者！？上手すぎる！

[@michaelroberts2023]

But the r25 has a completely different sound to this as well.

[@nunslittletoy]

That is my point exactly. The top gear track is a mickey mouse track for an F1 car. At silverstone an F1 car has a massive advantage over road cars in the fast corners of which there are many. There are 2 fast (ish) corners at the top gear track. This is reflected in racing where an F1 car will have only a small advantage over an F3 car at somewhere like Brands Hatch Indy circuit (5 seconds over a 37 second lap) and a big one at Silverstone (20 seconds over a 95 second lap).

[@mikecustoms]

first gear is used for really slow corners, much like monaco's hairpin, but it's not that popular

[@Strakos0]

Yep, for anyone who is "in love" with motorsport it had to be clear that the Stig has/had to be a F1 driver ...

[@dudeonlygamingandotherstuf7791]

Strakos0 the stig was Ben Collins but for this lap it was driven by the Renault test driver back then

[@Strakos0]

Thanks. Yes.

[@nicolaz1357]

"""" that was Heikki Kovalainen """"

[@echoesmourn3108]

Pretty sure a modern F1 car would do Follow Through completely flat, even in the wet. Insane lap regardless.

[@Concodroid]

This one could as well, not sure why he didn't. They probably didn't have a lot of time with the car

[@HexxuSz]

and this is wet lol

[@yolandasong1617]

Does not sound like V10 revving. More like the V8 afterwards. 2004 should be V10 if I remember correctly.

[@kerimca98]

Sound can vary a lot depending on how the microphone is set up kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYm0aWyVbbqCnNk in this video it's a V8 yet sounds high pitched

[@michaelroberts2023]

This is the r24. the r25 engine sounds very different from this. The r24 has the same hoarse whining sound that this does.

[@SaintJayV]

DiZh0 They only allow Street legal cars on the board. The FXX is not street legal, so why put street legal tyres on it?

[@thestonecoldandy]

It's 2004 mate

[@xismxist]

nah the difference is bigger than that, at silverstone the F1 is like 60% faster than the best lamborghinis and ferraris, while 55-57 sec around top gear track would make it only 30-35% faster than the same kinda cars - no way

[@TheRave23]

GoldVillage silverstone is about 5.8km long (since 2011) Top gear circuit: 2.8km Longer distance - more time to make a difference....... Beside of all the other factors left out here

[@JoeyNFL]

so thats how u know the stig is not a former f1 driver

[@sanderjanssens6331]

It probably wasn't the stig driving. Renault most likely used the factory testdriver to do a lap, much like Ferrari used Schumacher to do a lap in the FXX.

[@andreaskristiansen5243]

Ummmm The Stig is Schumacher?

[@gabehorno]

Andreas Kristiansen I'm pretty sure they can change The Stig to whoever the fuck they want to. Nobody sees his face.

[@allenjackson2846]

Wouldn't Schumacher be able to just get in the car and drive? He was in Formula One racing in 2004, I know there is a big difference between Renault and Ferrari but still, the setups would be broadly similar right?

[@hafiz-x9p]

Serius men!,

[@TheUnorthodoxGears]

Damn!

[@disturbedrocks1996]

I know your comment is quite old, but I just wanted to correct you, without sounding like a knob end. Actually Ferrari only let's the OWNERS of an FXX drive it and ONLY on track days that THEY approve. So it's not that Collins couldn't drive the FXX around the track just as fast or faster than Schumacher it's that he wasn't allowed to drive it at all.

[@DeLimaJunior6]

Nice downshifts...

[@sanderjanssens6331]

What's wrong with his downshifts?

[@DiZh0]

i wouldnt say wasnt allowed to. cause that never stopped top gear. It was Michael his own ferrari so why would he hand the steer over when he can prob do a better job And company's useally keep/got 1 extra model they let use for testing by magazines/tv shows and if thats not the case they could prob find 1 owner that would let the stig drive their car they have done that before. What i mainly found a shame about the lap time is that it got disqualified cause of the tires. Pop others on and redo.

[@gtkun4]

WAO!!

[@RiceReaper]

So the Stigs lap time sucked huh? Do tell us how your record is faster.

[@MrCelroy]

I did my lap in 0:01 second. Ultra world record!!

[@michaelyacobucci5669]

my best clean lap is 59.88 in forza in a f1 car, and not the cheap ferrari 648 or whateever that 10 handling one is, i used the lotus f1

[@lexus14blacklist]

after revealing the stig they saw it was michael shumacher

[@ElMike458]

In the R25 the front wing is very curved and in the R24 the front wing is straight. It´s the R25

[@StevesSwearBox]

imagine how quick that car woulda been if it was a dry track and had someone like hamilton or button at the wheel. or even alonso!

[@alex.ann_der]

0 - 750 km/h : -1.4 seconds

[@Oat_meal_YT]

almost a minute, and wet!

[@jonaskapli9578]

Comparing drivers and their technic.. I´d say thats Alonso driving that car.. That would be a well kept secret.. I guess.. But its hard to say..

[@allenjackson2846]

They said Alonso was busy in the show at the time of performing the lap. Though they might have been lying. I don't know, it's either Alonso or Schumacher.

[@shedboy4lyf]

Allen Jackson Definitely not Schumi

[@nelsondawson9706]

Allen Jackson It is Alonso Because Schumacher would not be use to that car

[@Cain353]

Heikki Kovalainen actually. Test driver for Renault in 2004.

[@DaveMcIroy]

Too bad it was wet.