Even the BBC knew that replacing Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond for the next season of UK’s Top Gear was not going to be easy.
However, they seem to have finalized a pretty solid lineup, even if it did mean hiring twice as many presenters.
Among the new names joining Chris Evans for the next season is the Queen of the Ring Sabine Schmitz and former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan. They will line up alongside motoring journalist Rory Reid, YouTube star Chris Harris, Friends star Matt LeBlanc and The Stig as presenters for the new season, which is set to return in May.
Jordan has been a Formula One pundit since his role as team owner ended in the mid-2000’s. “I have such enormous respect for all my fellow presenters and I politely ask that they go easy on these old bones,” the 67-year-old requested.
Queen of the Ring Sabine Schmitz made her name in the Top Gear world back in the early 2000’s, when she beat Jeremy Clarkson’s time in a lap around the Nurburgring Nordschleife by 47 seconds, despite Clarkson setting his lap in a Jaguar S-Type, and Schmitz in a transit van. “I grew up next to the Nürburgring and have been racing for most of my life, so the chance to combine both driving and filming was too good an opportunity to pass up,” explained Schmitz.
With over 335,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Chris Harris on Cars, as of Feb. 11, Harris knows he has a soft cushion to fall back on if it all falls apart. “Top Gear is the thing that helped shape my life with cars, my perception of cars and my obsession with cars, and I’m raring to give it a go,” explained Harris. “I’m also quite gobby and happy to get into trouble. And if it all goes wrong, well, I can say I was once on Top Gear, and just head back to being that annoying small bloke off YouTube.”
Also joining the presenters is Rory Reid, who was able to make it through via Top Gear’s public auditions. “When I submitted my 30-second audition tape, I knew the odds were very firmly against me. To be the only person to make it through the open audition process makes me immensely proud. I’ve been a Top Gear fan for decades, but more than that, I live and breathe cars in a way that is perfectly compatible with the show.”
The Stig also made some comments but we weren’t able to understand him.
