For a show built around the chemistry of its three former presenters, finding a replacement trio with such chemistry was always going to be as important as finding people who knew about cars.
Engelsman and Holland are an already established double act as the presenters of Throttle House, a motoring YouTube channel with more than three million subscribers.
The bigger unknown was who would become their third presenter.
That search eventually led the show’s producers to Francis Bourgeois, a social media star better known for standing on railway platforms than behind the wheel of a supercar.
Engelsman says he and Holland had done chemistry testing with a number of people, but Bourgeois immediately felt different.
“As soon as Francis showed up, we were like: ‘That guy’,” Holland says.
Bourgeois remembers their first meeting taking place on a leather sofa in a hotel outside Basingstoke, where they mostly talked about what cars they owned.
By the time filming began, Holland says there was no need to consciously work out how to make the three-person dynamic function as “it just worked and clicked immediately”.
While the chemistry came quickly, actually finding out they had the job was much less straightforward. Engelsman says there was “no immediate moment” when they were formally told they had been chosen.
“It was the most gradual thing,” he says.
He and Holland initially thought they were simply part of a wider audition process, but then found themselves repeatedly being invited into writers’ rooms and asked for their views on ideas for the show.
For Bourgeois, that uncertainty may have been helpful as he admits he’d “just fall apart and start crying” if he’d found out about the job.
There is a clear generational shift with the new presenters, all three of whom built their profiles on social media – and critics have been mixed on how successfully that translates to The Grand Tour.
The Independent’s three-star review, external described the reboot as “all rather safe” and said the presenters feel “stilted”.
The Guardian’s review, external agreed and called the trio a “decent, if slightly anonymous, presence” who seem “quite meek and pleasant, and without any obvious dynamic”.
But it did praise Bourgeois, with Stuart Heritage calling him “the most enthusiastic enthusiast currently working on planet Earth”.
The FT also awarded the show three-stars, external and said that while the big budget spectacles are enjoyable to watch, they also feel “a little muted”.
It added that “the real question is whether a series that has been driven by big personalities like Clarkson, May and Hammond can survive with a new team”.
Hammond tells News he tuned in for The Grand Tour’s return and said it was great to see the new team getting going.
“That’s the most important thing for them is to make their show. We made our show and we’re really good at being us. They’re going to be really good at being them,” he says.
Hammond says the audience need to “give them the chance” to show that.