Is Top Gear losing its drive?

I’ve long enjoyed Top Gear, and was happy that BBC America has been showing new series/seasons closer to their original airings in England. But it sounds like the latest series isn’t so good. I hope that this article is wrong, but I already thought that they’ve been going too far with the sideshows and too far away from the cars. It sounds like they’ve gone even farther this season, which isn’t good. We’ll see soon enough, I guess.