Chris Harris is one of the automotive industry’s most popular faces. His current role as a host for the wildly popular show, Top Gear, on BBC is also his most recognizable. Throughout his career, Harris has done extensive video work on YouTube via his “Chris Harris On Cars” series as well as editorial work writing for the likes of Evo Magazine, Jalopnik, and Autocar.
Despite a manufacturer’s excitement of the release of a new model, it often falls on journalists to test these products and sometimes deliver very harsh but fair criticism. In early 2011, Harris published an article on Jalopnik in which he shed light on some of Ferrari’s practices with their press cars and how they were being optimized for journalists in order to ensure a positive review.
Shortly after its publishing, Ferrari made the decision to ban Harris from testing any of their current or future products.
It All Started With One Article
The article in question was titled “How Ferrari Spins” and was published on Jalopnik on February 15th, 2011. The piece opens with Harris stating how pissed he is with Ferrari and dives straight into a story regarding the testing of the Ferrari 599 GTB back in 2007. In it, Harris claims that Ferrari wanted to be notified ahead of time of which track would be used for the test so they could fine tune the car so it would perform at its best. Throughout the article, Harris made it clear that he had a great love for the cars, it was the organization he had an issue with.
The challenge seemed to be that Ferrari held all of the power by withholding vehicles from journalists if they were not willing to play along by their rules. Harris then recounted a story regarding the much newer Ferrari 458 in which he claimed that it took the work of two test vehicles and a team of engineers to achieve the performance figures originally stated by the factory. It’s not surprising that Ferrari did not take kindly to his words and chose to ban him from driving vehicles shortly after the publishing of the original article.
Harris Wasn't Alone
As you can imagine, the number of people that spoke in favor of Harris and against the manufacturer of some of the greatest sports cars ever made was small. Despite this, a now infamous clip from Top Gear season 22, episode 5 which originally aired over 4 years after Harris’ original article shows he wasn’t alone. In it, presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are pondering a potential test of the Ferrari LaFerrari against the Porsche 918 Spyder and the McLaren P1.
Clarkson quickly dove into an explanation as to why the test would not be possible. Although Porsche agreed to do the test at the Top Gear track, McLaren claimed it would be unfair as their circuit would benefit the 918’s all-wheel-drive system. McLaren went on to request that all of the cars be customer cars, not factory prepped vehicles. Clarkson explained that McLaren didn’t want “them turning up with sticky tires and 17 turbos on then.” While Porsche agreed to that stipulation, Ferrari refused to partake in the test unless all of the cars came directly from the factory.
To combat this, the trio suggested they source three customer cars independently of the manufacturers to do the test. To which Ferrari said that if they go that route, they will make sure that the owner of the LaFerrari is never allowed to buy a limited-edition Ferrari again.
Lamborghini Was Upset Too
In November of 2014, Harris took to Jalopnik and wrote a very critical article of Italian supercar manufacturer, Lamborghini. In the article titled “Lamborghinis Are The Perfect Cars For People Who Can’t Drive” Harris dives into the extensive history of Lamborghini supercars and details how positive his experience has been when driving the Countach, Diablo, and Murcielago.
He then spoke about the recently released Aventador and claimed it was the first Lambo he had driven that could not match its driving experience to its looks. According to Harris “driving the Aventador on a track confirmed it. After three laps the brakes caught fire.” Much like with the Ferrari situation, Lamborghini did not take lightly to his comments regarding their newest product and subsequently banned him from driving their vehicles.
What Does Their Relationship Look Like In 2020?
Following his banning from driving Ferrari press vehicles, Harris went on to purchase his own 599 in order to review it honestly for his YouTube series. Not long after in 2013, the Italian carmaker and Harris managed to make amends. Although the specifics of the conversation are unknown, Harris has since been seen testing various Ferrari models both for YouTube and his role as a presenter on Top Gear.
Harris’ relationship with Lamborghini healed as well seeing as in 2017, he was able to review the Lamborghini Huracan for his "Chris Harris Drives" show for Top Gear.