Max Verstappen found the only positive to having Donald Trump on Miami GP grid
Donald Trump with McLaren
Max Verstappen says there was one “good” thing about having Donald Trump on the Miami grid was people were so interested in the former US president, they didn’t “bother” him.
Formula 1 courted controversy on the Sunday of the Miami Grand Prix with former president Trump attending the race.
Donald Trump walked the grid at the Miami Grand Prix
He visited the McLaren garage, Lando Norris revealing Trump called him his “lucky charm” as the Briton went on to win the Grand Prix ahead of Verstappen.
Trump’s presence though, divided social media.
Although he is again running for the office of President of the United States, the 77-year-old is currently in court as he battles 34 felony charges in New York, all of which he denies.
McLaren defended their decision to host the presidential candidate, making it clear they are a “non-political organisation”, also it was a “request”.
“McLaren is a non-political organisation,” said a spokesman for the team. “However we recognise and respect the office of the President of the United States so when the request was made to visit our garage on race day we accepted alongside the president of the FIA and the CEO’s of Liberty Media and Formula 1.
As for Verstappen, he found one huge silver lining in Trump’s Formula 1 outing.
“It’s good everyone looks at him, you know, and then they don’t bother me,” he told Canal+.
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As for Norris, he said it was an honour meeting Trump.
“I didn’t see him in the garage,” he said. “I was busy prepping for the race. But he saw me after, and he came up to congratulate me.
“So I guess an honour, because whenever you have someone like this, it has to be an honour for them to come up to you, to take time out of their life, to pay their respect for what you’ve done.
“He said he was my lucky charm because it’s my win, so I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races now.
“But there’s a lot of special people or cool people that have been here this weekend. Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways.
“For anyone like that who acknowledges what you can go out and do and acknowledges the work ethic that goes into things, you got to be thankful for that, and I was. So a cool moment, and that’s all.”