In a tweet earlier this morning, Chris Evans has now confirmed the lineup for the 2016 Top Gear team. We briefly look at the credentials of this entirely new breed of presenters taking on the mammoth task of holding onto a huge audience cultivated by Clarkson, Hammond and May.
Morning from the new Top Gear team. All present and correct and smelling of eau de petrol. pic.twitter.com/y8X3uVb2uH
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) February 11, 2016
Moving from left to right, first up is motoring journalist and most definitely least well known of the bunch, Rory Reid. Rory was picked up in public auditions last year along with being a presenter on CNET’s Car Tech channel (no I haven’t seen it either but I did find him on YouTube).
Next up of course is everyone’s favourite taxi driver, Sabine Schmitz. She’s trading her M5 Nurburgring taxi for some screen time as our German VBH.
Matt LeBlanc needs no introduction as the megastar from Friends and self confessed Top Gear nut. I hope his fandom comes from love of the show, and not just of the three stooges that have nipped off to Amazon! Chris Evans had been taunting Matt on twitter over the last weeks with photos of the Top Gear team at various pubs wondering when he would join them… and it appears he has.
Chris Evans is a given, and holding the sick bags for him is ex-Evo and YouTube success Chris Harris. Monkey is my most welcome addition to the team, as we know he can at least talk and drive at the same time.
Irishman and F1 veteran Eddie Jordan stands next to the Stig. With such a large team though, will he get much screen time? There’s only so much that years of grand prix mastery can bring to the review of a new Kia.
And there you have it. What comes next is anyone’s guess.