The Grand Tour has dropped its first trailer with new presenters James Englesman, Thomas Holland and Francis Bourgeois, setting up a September 2026 season after Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond stepped down.
Francis Bourgeois, the viral trainspotter turned presenter, gave the new lineup its sharpest character note in the show’s drive, buy, destroy video for The Grand Tour YouTube channel: American muscle cars “don’t tickle my pickle.” That line lands as more than a joke. It tells viewers the new trio is being sold with attitude, not imitation, which is the only workable way to relaunch a long-running car series without pretending the old one can be recreated.
Drive, buy, destroy
The trio’s first test in drive, buy, destroy was built around three-car choices, and the selections sketch the personalities quickly. In the first round, Francis Bourgeois said he loved the Ferrari Testarossa, James said he would destroy the Ferrari Testarossa, James and Thomas would buy the Lamborghini Countach, and Francis Bourgeois agreed to buy the Lamborghini Countach. The Porsche 930 Turbo was destroyed.
The second round pushed the same formula further. The trio decided to drive the TVR Sagaris, buy the Lotus Elise, and destroy the Noble M400. Then came the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 and Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, with the group driving the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, buying the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, and destroying the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. For a launch video, that is doing two jobs at once: introducing the cast and resetting the tone.
Clarkson, Hammond and May
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond stepped down before this new run, and that leaves the production with a problem every long-running format eventually hits. The show is being promoted as new, but the source also says the three new presenters know they can never replace Clarkson, Hammond and May. That is not a weakness; it is the pitch. The relaunch works only if it behaves like a successor, not a copy.
Andy Willman is still producing the new season, which gives the project continuity behind the camera even as the faces change in front of it. He previously produced Top Gear and The Grand Tour alongside Clarkson, Hammond and May, and that matters because the format depends on timing and chemistry as much as it does on cars. For readers who followed the old version, the point is not whether the new trio can mimic the old one. It is whether the new lineup can make the same machinery feel fresh enough to keep moving.
September 2026 launch
September 2026 is the date that now matters, because the trailer has already done the job of introducing the replacements and the YouTube video has shown how the show wants them to read. Thomas Holland also recalled a story about James spinning a pickup truck in Los Angeles in the pouring rain across five lanes of traffic, a detail that keeps the new lineup tied to the kind of reckless anecdote the series built its name on.
Matt Brennan’s maiden Grand Tour stage win gives the wider Grand Tour franchise another reminder that the name still carries heat outside this launch cycle, while the new season now has to prove the handoff can hold an audience without the old trio in frame. Whether James Englesman, Thomas Holland and Francis Bourgeois are permanent presenters or only appear for this season is not stated, and that unanswered point is exactly what makes the trailer feel less like a reboot than a test run.
