The Grand Tour's future and why Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond won't do Top Gear

BBC have rested Top Gear for the foreseeable future after Freddie Flintoff's crash and now there has been a question mark over whether Amazon Prime’s series The Grand Tour will return.

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond started up rival car show The Grand Tour after Clarkson, 63, was sacked for punching a producer on Top Gear in 2015 and his close friends quit the show saying: "We come as a package."

The Grand Tour has had great success over the past seven years it has been running on Amazon Prime. But the trio go way back, with their friendship and working TV relationship going back 20 years.

There had even been talk of the famous team leaving The Grand Tour and even returning to Top Gear – but there's no way that will happen as Clarkson has made this quite clear.

Clarkson said it would be "heartless" to replace former Top Gear presenter Flintoff.

So, what is the fact and the fiction? Is it really the end of the road for The Grand Tour? Or are they going to take a different route with the show?

What do we know about The Grand Tour's future?

TV favourites Clarkson, May and Hammond have filmed their final special episode of The Grand Tour in Zimbabwe.

It is publicly known that the three presenters contracts were up shortly as revealed by James May in June earlier this year.

Edits have begun on the special episode and fans will be pleased to find out that it has been scheduled to air on the small screen later next year.

It isn’t the only episode Amazon Prime has plans to drop of The Grand Tour in 2024.

The trio have also filmed another The Grand Tour special in Mauritania which will launch in February next year.

No official decision has been made on The Grand Tour’s future with Amazon Prime.

Instead Amazon Prime have been exploring different options of how the show could look in the future - potentially without the three presenters at the helm.

What The Grand Tour will look like has yet to get the green light.

What has Jeremy Clarkson and James May said about the end of The Grand Tour?

Clarkson recently confessed the trio were “done” with The Grand Tour.

Asked if they were leaving, he told The Times newspaper: "We're done. I have reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That's 34 years. And after next year, I won't be doing that any more."

In June earlier this year, May shut down rumours that The Grand Tour was being cancelled.

He told The Radio Times: "I mean, some people have said we've been cancelled."

It come after Clarkson sparked outrage and later apologised for his column about Meghan Markle that made a controversial Game Of Thrones reference.

In the same chat, May did also reveal the trio's contracts with the show would be up this year, although he didn't say when.

But in the same breath, the car enthusiast confessed they may be "getting a bit old" to continue with the show.

He admitted: "But really we're getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we didn't really have any particular plans to keep going because we're all really just getting a bit old. It might be time to let someone else have a crack at it."

Would Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May return to Top Gear?

When Clarkson, Hammond and May begun fronting Top Gear in 2003, it changed the show forever.

The entertainment motoring show – which had first appeared on TV in the 70s – had insane success and put the trio on a path for showbiz glory as they found global stardom with their sense of fun being well received by audiences everywhere.

But when the BBC sacked Clarkson for punching a producer, his two close pals stuck by him and they left the motoring show for good.

Top Gear replaced the famous car-loving trio for Chris Evans and Friends star Matt LeBlanc.

Evans, Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness got behind the wheel for Top Gear in 2019 but the show came to a halt when Flintoff had an accident in December last year.

BBC recently announced they were "resting" the show for good.

Social media was awash with fans excited at the prospect of Clarkson, May and Hammond making a huge comeback to the show.

Among the comments, people speculated: "Well known they're coming back to BBC to do Top Gear."

Others added: "They all be back to Top Gear for sure!!!"

"Top Gear replacement on the way to the BBC."

Despite excitement building around whether the trio would return to the show, Clarkson made his feelings known about replacing Flintoff on Top Gear.

Clarkson wrote in his column in The Sun: "Sure, the producers could try to find a replacement. But would you want that gig? Really?

"Because not only would you come across as a heartless t***, you’d be on a show that was written and produced every week by a newly invigorated and all-powerful health and safety department.

"And you’d be working for a corporation which fundamentally likes cycle lanes."

While May had said it was "very sad" to hear Top Gear had ended, he said the show needed "a rethink" before it could return to the small screen.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "It does need a bit of a rethink. It’s time for a new format and a new approach to the subject because the subject has not been this interesting, I suspect, since the car was invented.

"And it would be a shame if an organisation like the BBC didn’t have something to say about it."

Read more:

• Top Gear’s ex-presenter Tiff Needell says show put ‘non-racing drivers into racing situations’ - exclusive

• The Grand Tour: Clarkson, May and Hammond set to 'quit' after 20 years together (Oxford Mail, 2-min read)