Ever since The Grand Tour canned its driver, “The American,” the show has been on the hunt for a replacement. Now it looks like Clarkson, Hammond and May have found a promising candidate: ex-Formula One driver Mark Webber. Watch him try to impress the trio with “hot laps” of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS and Mercedes-AMG GT R.
I put “hot laps” in quotes, because what the Australian Formula One and LMP1 driver does with the AMG GT hardly qualifies as “hot.” Just watch:
Webber, who retired from competitive racing last year after driving for the Porsche World Endurance Championship team for a few years, spent a bit of time at Mercedes in the late 1990s, even crashing the CLR sports car (because of the car’s aerodynamic deficiencies) during practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In his retirement, Webber still reps Porsche, so a little bit of fun-poking at cross-town rival Mercedes is almost expected.
Whether Webber will get the job, we don’t know yet. But it would finally give him a chance to be a big star instead of just “Everyone’s Favourite No. 2 Driver.”