Top Gear presenters: Relative unknowns Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris join Chris Evans

'Sabine and Chris are virtually unknown to the wider public and David isn't the most charismatic driver'

The new presenting trio for Top Gear has been announced, and it doesn’t exactly have the star power of Clarkson, Hammond and May’s Amazon Prime venture.

German racing driver Sabin Schmitz, motoring journalist Chris Harris and Formula One star David Coulthard will serve as Chris Evans’ sidekicks when the show returns, according to The Sun.

Schmitz and Coulthard have appeared on the show in the past, but Harris is a gamble, a former Autocar magazine writer whose biggest hit is his YouTube series on cars.

Sabine Schmitz

Chris Harris

David Coulthard

"Sabine and Chris are virtually unknown to the wider public and David isn't the most charismatic driver." a source told the tabloid.

Celebrity isn’t everything however, as James May and Richard Hammond were hardly household names when they arrived on Top Gear.

Earlier in the week, Top Gear lost its second executive producer, with Lisa Clark, who Evans brought on board to revamp the show and who replaced Andy Wilman (he jumped ship to the Clarkson project), quitting to “move on to new projects”.

The new Top Gear series arrives in May 2016.