Top Gear hits the track with monster crew

MOTORING NEWS - The British motoring TV show Top Gear has announced its full cast of presenters. Following the option of not renewing the contracts of long-standing presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, the BBC has rounded out the presenting team with an additional four members.

German racing driver Sabine Schmitz has featured many times on Top Gear in the past and returns to the show in a move that has been expected. Eddie Jordan, who currently works as a BBC Formula 1 analyst and used to be Michael Schumacher's F1 boss, also joins the show.

Known on YouTube is motoring fundi Chris Harris, who makes the big step up from around one million hits per video online, to hundreds of millions of weekly viewers. Top Gear's public call for auditions harvested Rory Reid - the winner and only person to get through the 30 second video audition process. Fan favourite, The Stig, continues in his racing whites.

The full team is:

Rory Reid - a journalist recruited to Top Gear via the show's public auditions. He previously presented CNET Car Tech channel as well as Sky 1 Gadget Geeks.
Sabine Schmitz is a professional German racing driver for BMW and Porsche, known as the "Queen of the Nürburgring".
Matt LeBlanc - American actor, recognisable as Joey from Friends. He holds the fastest lap time on Top Gear's 'Star in a reasonably-priced car'.
Chris Evans - a somewhat controversial choice, although he is a seasoned presenter on TV and radio, but his chirpy manner isn't to everyone's liking.
Chris Harris - motoring journalist and presenter for publications including Autocar, Jalopnik, and YouTube channel /Drive.
Eddie Jordan - an Irish racing driver and former F1 team owner with a trademark no-nonsense, experienced view of the motoring world.
The Stig