Interview: Peak Performance in Motion - Ben Collins on Motorsport, Movies, and Mindset
Ben Collins is best known as the masked stunt driving legend behind BBC’s Top Gear persona, The Stig.
An accomplished competitive racer in everything from Formula Three to Le Mans, he transformed his passion into exceptional success.
As a Peak Performance speaker, Ben distils his high-stakes racing and film-set expertise into electrifying lessons in focus, resolve, and teamwork.
From his early years training as a Special Forces driving instructor to dominating circuits across Europe and testing the limits of cars on blockbuster sets like James Bond, Fast & Furious, and The Dark Knight Rises.
Ben’s story is one of precision, resilience, and creative problem-solving.
His autobiography, The Man in the White Suit, lifted the helmet on what it takes to thrive under pressure—on and off screen.
Film News Blitz presents this exclusive interview Ben did with The Champions Speakers Agency, he takes audiences behind the wheel, sharing how split-second decisions, intense preparation, and elite collaboration converge to create triumph.
He reveals how lessons from motorsport and stunt-driving translate into achieving peak performance in business, sport, and life.
Q1. You’ve built a unique career bridging motorsport, Hollywood stunts and television. What parallels do you see between elite racing and the teamwork required to deliver world-class film productions?
Ben Collins: “Well, I think there’s a lot of parallels between what I’ve done in motorsport and in the film industry, working in stunts with mainstream business.
“Some of them are the most obvious and fundamental, which is working with the best people you can.
“A lot of my experiences over the years showcase highly skilled people working together as a team.
“It is a bit of a cliché talking about teamwork and using the right people for the right job, but in my world, it’s so fundamental and so core that you end up with these great examples of people working in special effects.
“Those who work on the cannons that help the cars flip over so that we land on the right mark – pairing that with people who are working against the flow of traffic on their bikes.
“In cars, people like me who are sliding and activating these quite complicated pieces of technology all at the same time.
“It’s such a collaboration, and I think it really showcases that in a fun way for businesses that are bringing teams together from different international groups of people working together with different experiences.
“The stunt side really showcases that. With the racing, there’s a unity of purpose – we’re all there to win, that’s obvious – in the same way that businesses are there to succeed.
“One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that you gain performance everywhere, not in just one area.
“You might be looking for a very small piece of time, maybe half a second on a lap. The mistake is to try and find that half second in one corner.
“It’s usually small pieces everywhere, not just across the lap. It’s human performance and personal development.
“How I achieve those things is through wonderful mental skills, visualisation, and the way we rehearse things and plan ahead of time.
“It’s weeks or months building up to the main event where you then deliver the maximum performance. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into that, and that’s a skill set that works for businesses.
“It’s also collaborating across the board with all the technology side that feeds into it. A lot of the lap time is bought and paid for over the winter before the season begins, so it’s a continuous evolution that gets the performance, again working together.
“I think it’s those two things in unison – collaboration across different skill sets, and how you search for performance in every area.”
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Q2. Risk is ever-present in both racing and stunt driving. How do you approach risk management, and what lessons from the track have carried into your film work?
Ben Collins: “In the movie-making process, my whole job is risk management. Actually, I would argue the same is true on the track.
“There’s an adage that says: to finish first, you first have to finish. I learned very much the hard way that not finishing was a problem – going for a move that was too risky, having a collision. Nearly making it doesn’t count.
“You do have to learn to do what we’d call in the movie-making world ‘dynamic risk assessments’.
“In the racing world, you rely quite a lot on experience to see what is high risk and whether it’s worth it or not. There are times when you do have to take the plunge and try to pull a move. Motorsport certainly has that.
“With movie-making, the entire department of stunts is there to manage risk. One of the best ways to mitigate it is using the best people for the job, because they’re going to have the experience, the ability, the innate instincts that you want to make the right decisions at the right time.
“That’s something I talk about and showcase, particularly in the Bond movies I’ve worked on, but in all of the films I’ve been involved with.
“It’s also about how specific you are in the rehearsal times – picking out things in advance. Businesses are the same. You can basically make your mistakes behind closed doors, more gently than when it really counts.
“That’s the way to do it. A lot of it comes down to forward planning, but also having enough experience in the team to be able to react in the right way when you need to.”
Q3. Strategy is as crucial in endurance racing as it is on set. From your experience, what can filmmakers and production teams learn from the way you approach race strategy?
Ben Collins: “Race strategy is a fascinating business. There are probably people out there playing Formula One Manager on Xbox or PlayStation who know more than I do about running an F1 race – I still watch mystified through half of them trying to work out what’s happening!
“What I do understand is how my series works. Every series has different regulations, so I’m well aware of my shortcomings because I understand the area that I know.
“That’s quite crucial: knowing the regulations you’re working in.
“I’m racing in a series called the Praga Cup – a one-make series of cars, kind of like the Le Mans cars I used to race, with some very quirky rules that you need to understand.
“The devil is in the detail, which I’m sure is familiar for businesses. The rules change, so we have to update those all the time and work out what they are.
“We strategise around the strengths of the drivers – how much time they should be in the car, when to do the fuel, when to do the tyres – all those things come together.
“It comes down to making the most of your equipment and your people throughout that period of time.
“The strategic side is also about exploiting your opposition respectfully, but effectively.
“You’re looking for weaknesses in the people you’re competing with so you can build your strategy around that, as well as making the absolute best of your own performance.
“For example, we look at different tracks: pit lanes vary in length. Even though the rules haven’t changed, the environment is different, so it might take longer to get down the pit lane at Donington compared to Silverstone.
“You allocate resources around that and stay flexible. Strategy is always changeable, and that’s something businesses can relate to.”
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Q4. With an on-screen career spanning over 20 years, how have you seen the filming process evolve across television, Hollywood blockbusters and now digital platforms like YouTube?
Ben Collins: “The way content is filmed has changed hugely. Even during my time at Top Gear, camera technology evolved.
“Occasionally, I’d jump in the car to help the presenters by doing slides, but as the cameras improved, the quality meant you could see through the windscreens more clearly.
“As a result, we had to start wearing wigs – I looked ridiculous in a Clarkson wig, but that’s life!
Top Gear was shot beautifully by an incredibly consistent and talented camera team. That’s one of the reasons it’s so watchable and repeatable – you see it rebroadcast again and again.
“The cameramen were the backbone, many of whom now work on Clarkson’s Farm.
“Movies are different. Everything is shot for real – no CGI – but they have more resources, more time, and bigger crews.
“For example, my first Bond film took three months to shoot less than two minutes of footage. The directors, from Ridley Scott to Christopher Nolan, are meticulous. They want every frame perfect.
“Television doesn’t always allow that precision, and YouTube is another level again. There, it’s raw, spontaneous, and immediate.
“You can capture something with a GoPro, and if it resonates with people, it works. They all have their place – but the scale, precision, and purpose vary dramatically between TV, film, and digital.”
Q5. You’ve moved seamlessly between racing, film and presenting. What’s next in your career — and where do you see the biggest opportunities for combining motorsport and screen storytelling?
Ben Collins: “My next adventure is YouTube. Having worked in television and movies, I’ve moved to the small screen – the mobile app. My channel, Ben Collins Drives, has been great fun.
“I’ve been teaching celebrities driving skills – Dizzee Rascal was amazing – and covering exclusive launches, like one for Praga.
“I’ve also been in America with Lucid, testing incredible automotive technology right at the pinnacle as it’s being released.
“There’s much more of that to do, plus a return to racing – I’ll be racing again for Praga. So in many ways, not much has changed, but it’s a new avenue, a new business, and something exciting to pursue.”
This exclusive interview with Ben Collins was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
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