‘We were honoured’: McLaren defend hosting Donald Trump during Miami GP amid backlash
Former US president Donald Trump with McLaren team principal Zak Brown
McLaren have issued a statement, defending their decision to allow former US president Donald Trump to visit their garage at the Miami Grand Prix that concluded on Sunday (May 5) with a first top podium finish for Lando Norris. A section of Formula 1 fans, however, did not like the presence of Trump and criticised the British motorsport company.
Trump, who lives in Florida, was among the several VIPs to descend to the race track and the paddock in Miami. He was seen interacting with Norris while posing for photos with team chief executive Zak Brown in the pit lane outside the garage.
Amid the online criticism, McLaren issued a statement saying that the organisation was honoured to host Trump at the request of the FIA boss.
“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," read the statement.
“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," it added.
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Norris’ lucky charm - Trump
Quizzed after the race where Norris managed to outpace Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win his maiden Formula 1 race, the British driver said Trump came to congratulate him.
"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," said Norris.
“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," he added.
Trump, one of the most polarising figures in the US, has been on the campaign trail to secure a second term as the president. He has already secured the nomination from the GOP and would be going up against Joe Biden, later this year.
(With inputs from agencies)