Richard Hammond has admitted that he did not want to part ways with Jeremy Clarkson and James May when The Grand Tour came to an end.
The television presenter, 56, said he felt as though he did not have a choice, for the trio had made an unspoken pact to all bow out together.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, he said: “If the others had said let’s carry on, I’d have carried on.”
The trio and Andy Wilman, the executive producer, had worked together for two decades, from starting on BBC’s Top Gear in 2003 to finishing The Grand Tour in 2024.
“This time I didn’t have any choice. I’d have carried on ‘cause I would,” Hammond added. “If they were ready to stop, we had to stop. There was no question. We all four had to be there to do it, so I was ready to stop because the others were.”
Later in the episode, Hammond admitted it was “quite a complicated four-way relationship, a 25-year career together like that”.
“And if we weren’t all in that place of wanting to do it, then … I wouldn’t want to do it,” he continued. “Because it wouldn’t work. Couldn’t do it.”
Reflecting on his career, Hammond told Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes that he had been incredibly fortunate.
He added: “It was hard. I’ve heard somebody say how do you know when you’re living through the good old days?
“It’s a really good question. We didn’t know at the time, but God, it was amazing to get to do what we did. I was so privileged, so lucky.”
In 2006, Hammond spent a fortnight in a coma while filming for Top Gear after his jet-powered car crashed while travelling 320 mph at the former RAF Elvington air base.
He made a full recovery and returned the next year.
The BBC show was put on hold after an accident involving Freddie Flintoff in 2022, where the former cricketer was taken to hospital.
The Telegraph later reported that the show’s insurance costs became unsustainable after the crash, leading to the BBC pausing the show.
Hammond: I was a mess I left Top Gear
After finishing The Grand Tour, Clarkson said the trio had “done everything” and said the “world has shrunk” because of terrorism and war, making ambitious filming projects harder.
Clarkson was fired from Top Gear for punching a producer in 2015, prompting May and Hammond to also leave and form a new venture with Amazon, The Grand Tour.
In a recent video posted to the DriveTribe YouTube channel last year, Hammond recalled being overcome with emotion after leaving the Top Gear studio for the final time.
“The very last time I drove this road on the way back from the very last Top Gear studio recording, I was a tear-soaked mess,” he said.
Last year, Hammond launched a podcast with one of his daughters called Who We Are Now, which he described as his “midlife crisis”.
He has also mooted expanding his workshop, The Smallest Cog, by building a roadhouse where people can watch cars being worked on, a restaurant, café and museum.
