The former Top Gear host shares how his driving makes his friends uneasy, even when he’s not behind the wheel.

Richard Hammond, the well-known former Top Gear presenter, has confessed that his friends often feel “anxious” about getting into a car with him behind the wheel.

In a recent appearance on The Paul Chowdhry PudCast, released on 10 April, the 54-year-old revealed how his driving style has left his friends feeling uneasy. “Some of them get anxious,” he admitted.

He went on to explain that the situation can be even more tense when someone else is driving while he’s in the car. “It tends to go one of two ways,” Hammond said. “Either they drive cautiously to show I have nothing to worry about, or they try to impress me, and it ends up being a bit over the top, which can be alarming.”

Hammond also reflected on his infamous 2006 crash, where he was involved in a near-fatal accident while driving a jet-powered dragster at nearly 320mph, an incident that left him in a coma.