- Former Top Gear co-host Chris Harris spoke recently about Freddie Flintoff’s crash in 2022.
- Harris warned the BBC about dangerous situations months prior to the crash.
- Flintoff has largely recovered but still struggles with physical and mental issues.
In December 2022, former pro Cricket player and Top Gear presenter Freddie Flintoff suffered serious injuries in a crash while filming an episode at the Dunsfold track. The incident ultimately ended the popular motoring show, and though Flintoff has largely recovered, he still struggles with physical and mental challenges.
Now, his co-presenter Chris Harris is opening up about the crash. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, he shared his feelings on what happened, his own struggles with the crash and aftermath, and how he tried to warn the BBC that things were getting too dangerous.
“I had seen this coming,” he said. “There was a big inquiry, a lot of soul searching, the BBC is good at that. But what was never spoken about was that, three months before the accident, I’d gone to the BBC and said, unless you change something, someone’s going to die on this show.”
Flintoff’s crash wasn’t the first incident on the show in its later years. Paddy McGuinness lost control of a Lamborghini Diablo in 2020 while on public roads, sliding into a field. In 2019 Flintoff crashed a Subaru Brat during a race in Mansfield. And on the podcast, Harris talks about crashing wooden go-karts in Thailand that left him with a broken hand. That was one of the moments he felt stunts were going too far on the show, but he told Rogan that the BBC didn’t acknowledge his concerns.
“I saw this coming. I thought I did the right thing. I went to the BBC. And I found out that no one had taken me very seriously.”
Flintoff was driving a Morgan 3 Wheeler when he crashed. Harris, who had experience with the car, said the film crew just went off and started shooting without informing him about it. Being the presenter with the most driving experience, Harris said he and Flintoff would often discuss cars and things to expect before setting out, but this time he didn’t have that chance.
“Because of the call times that day, that was the first time we never had a chance to talk about how he might approach a difficult vehicle,” explained Harris. “And that was the one day it went wrong. I find that very difficult to live with.”
Technically speaking, the BBC is “resting” Top Gear for the foreseeable future. But if it does return, it will almost certainly be a very different format with new hosts.
“To actually say to an organization, ‘this is going to go wrong’ and then be there the day it goes wrong is a position I never expected to be in,” said Harris. “And I never want to be in again.”