Richard Hammond hasn’t ruled out RETURNING to Top Gear alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson
The show was axed after Freddie Flintoff suffered a horror car crash on set in 2022
RICHARD HAMMOND has teased that he could one day return to Top Gear alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.
The 54-year-old was quizzed over his future as rumours swirl over the popular trio returning to host the hit BBC show.
Top Gear was “rested” after Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash on set
Hammond laughed when asked about returning to Top Gear but didn’t rule out the possibility.
He said: “I don’t know. I have no doubt Top Gear will come back one day.
“Somebody will pick it up and run with it. It’ll be a different show.
“It’s been taken off-air and put back on many times before. They rest it. I’m sure somebody will take it up.”
Top Gear was “rested” for the “foreseeable future”, after host Freddie Flintoff was seriously injured in a horror 124mph crash.
The former England cricket captain, 45, was rushed to hospital after the high-speed crash in December 2022.
The injury happened at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey during a stunt for the show.
Hammond famously suffered two serious accidents while filming shows with Jeremy and James.
I have no doubt Top Gear will come back one day.
Richard Hammond
In 2006, he was hospitalised after crashing a Vampire Dragster at a speed in excess of 200mph and was put into a coma after filming the segment for the BBC’s Top Gear.
Eleven years later, on the second season of The Grand Tour, Richard crashed a Rimac Concept One at a hill-climb in Switzerland, rolling the car several times and fracturing his knee.
Despite this he said they always took safety as a top priority: “We probably know better than most that no matter how many precautions you take, accidents can still happen and things can still go wrong, and they do.
“It’s then about how well-prepared are you to deal with it once the worst has happened, once it has gone wrong, if you have everything in place to cope with it.”
Hammond presented Top Gear from 2002 to 2015, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
In the early days, when the trio took over it was a niche show on BBC Two but over the years it became hugely popular.
The show became one of the BBCs biggest money makers with spin-off shows being sold around the world.
After they were let go from Top Gear the trio became the faces of Amazon‘s motoring show The Grand Tour from 2016 to now with the beloved show set to end this year.
The three presenters also launched DriveTribe on YouTube in 2016.
The show became one of the BBCs biggest money makers with spin-off shows being sold around the world.
Hammond also indicated last week the BBC motoring show could very well make a “come back”, but said if it does it might be in a radically different format.
He told the : “Top Gear was on hiatus when we took it on so it’ll come back one day, although in what shape I don’t know.
“The decision to buy our next car is probably the most significant contribution we can make, as individuals, to the future, so we need to be informed.”
He added: “As for shows like The Grand Tour, I don’t think the human desire for adventure is ever going to be sated.
“Maybe that’s the route it could take?”
The trio’s penultimate episode of The Grand Tour will launch on Prime Video on Friday.
It sees them cross the Sahara desert, retracing the original route of the Dakar Rally.
“It’s three grown men being idiots once again,” Richard exclusively told The Sun.
They take on the challenge of driving through north west Africa in inappropriate motors in the form of open-top sports cars better suited to cruising the streets of Monaco than the world’s biggest desert.
As always, high-speed stunts will be at the show’s heart and the latest episode is one of their scariest yet.
