McLaren have defended Donald Trump’s garage visit after he rubbed shoulders with a team boss and spoke to Lando Norris.
Norris powered to a surprise win over world champion and current Formula One leader Max Verstappen for his first win in an F1 Grand Prix.
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Trump, the Republican 2024 presidential candidate, had arrived at Hard Rock Stadium before the race and visited the McLaren garage where he met with the team’s CEO Zak Brown and then sought out Norris after the race.
“I didn’t see him in the garage to be honest, I was busy prepping for the race, but he saw me afterwards, and he came up to congratulate me,” said Norris.
“I guess it’s an honour, because whenever you have someone like this, it has to be an honor for them to come up to you, to take time out of their life, to pay their respect for what you’ve done,” added the British driver.
“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,” added the 24-year-old.
Lando Norris (left) said Trump said he was a lucky charm. Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images/AFP.
Norris said he appreciated Trump’s words from their post-race exchange.
“There’s a lot of special people, or cool people that have been here this weekend, Donald is someone that you’ve got to have a lot of respect for in many ways, and for anyone like that, who acknowledges what you can go out and do, and acknowledges the work ethic that goes into things, you’ve got to be thankful for that, and I was.
“So yeah, a cool moment,” he said.
Donald Trump and McLaren Chief Executive Officer Zak Brown talk in the McLaren garage. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Zak Brown chats to Donald Trump in the pit lane. Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images/AFP.
After Trump’s visit to McLaren’s garage, which drew a large crowd of onlookers, the team issued a statement.
“McLaren is a non-political organization however we recognize 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 CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1,” the team said.
“We were honored 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,” they added.
A fundraiser for Trump’s presidential campaign was reportedly planned to be held at the paddock suites in Miami over the weekend but it was blocked by race organisers.
Tags: McLaren defended Trumps appearance
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