McLaren explain Donald Trump garage visit at Miami GP after sparking controversy
Donald Trump and Zak Brown in the McLaren garage
McLaren have defended their decision to have former US president Donald Trump as a guest at the Miami Grand Prix, saying they were “honoured” to fulfil the “request” to visit the garage.
Former US president Trump attended the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, the 77-year-old watching on as Lando Norris raced to his first-ever Formula 1 victory.
‘We were honoured that McLaren Racing was chosen as the representative of F1’
A guest in the McLaren garage, Trump met with Norris after the race to offer his congratulations to the Briton.
His visit, though, wasn’t without controversy.
Trump, who is again running for the office of President of the United States, is currently in court battling 34 felony charges in New York, all of which he denies.
But while partisan F1 fans took to social media to either applaud or condemn McLaren for his visit, the Woking team has defended their stance.
A McLaren spokesperson said: “McLaren is a non-political organisation however we recognise and respect the office of 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.
“We were honoured that McLaren Racing was chosen as the representative of F1 which gave us the opportunity to showcase the world-class engineering that we bring to motorsport.”
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The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Miami Grand Prix
As for Norris, Formula 1’s newest race winner said it was an “honour” meeting the former president who told the Briton he had been his “lucky charm” as he broke his duck.
“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.”