what did chris harris think of jeremy clarkson getting sacked from top gear

Chris Harris seems to have treated Jeremy Clarkson’s sacking as part of the wider, messy Top Gear legacy rather than a personal crusade. The clearest public material I found is that Harris later pushed back on Clarkson-era myths around Top Gear’s Tesla test, and Clarkson in turn said those comments “wind me up,” which suggests the relationship was more about revisiting old show controversies than Harris commenting directly on the firing itself.

What Harris appeared to think

• He did not publicly frame Clarkson’s firing as something he was celebrating.
• His later comments focused more on whether Clarkson’s Top Gear road tests were fair, not on the sacking as an event.

• The broader context is that Top Gear’s Clarkson era ended after his contract was not renewed in 2015, which reshaped the show and later led to new presenters including Harris.

Public read of the situation

In public reporting, Harris comes across as someone who respected the old show’s success while also challenging some of its mythology. That means his view looks less like “Clarkson deserved it” and more like “the Clarkson era had baggage, and people should be honest about it”.

Context

Clarkson’s departure is generally described as the result of the BBC ending his contract after an incident with a producer, not as a creative disagreement alone. Harris entered Top Gear afterward, so his later comments are often interpreted through the lens of how the new-era presenters related to the old guard.

Bottom line

The safest answer is: Chris Harris did not publicly issue a big, direct verdict on Clarkson getting sacked, but his later comments suggest he viewed the Clarkson era critically, especially when it came to fairness and the myths around it.