McLaren have revealed that they accepted a request from Donald Trump to visit their garage at the Miami Grand Prix to ‘recognise and respect the office of President of the United States’.
Trump arrived at the F1 Grand Prix in Miami on Sunday with a heavy security presence and was seen in deep conversation with McLaren CEO Zak Brown before the race.
The 45th president of the United States also held talks with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali before posing for photos in front of McLaren’s garage.
McLaren had faced criticism for allowing Trump into their paddock but the F1 team say they were ‘honoured’ by his visit.
‘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,’ McLaren said in a 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.’
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the Miami GP and F1 stopped Steven Witkoff, a Trump associate, from allegedly planning to host a $250,000-a-ticket fundraiser in his Paddock Club rooftop suite.
‘It has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 [£199,200] per ticket, which clearly violates the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement,’ read the letter obtained by The Washington Post.
‘If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full.’
McLaren’s Lando Norris ended up winning the race, which was the Brit’s first-ever victory in his F1 career.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished second, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended up in third place.
‘About time! What a race. It’s been a long time coming. Finally I’ve managed to do it,’ Norris, 24, said after his maiden F1 win.
‘I’m so happy for my whole team. I finally delivered for them. Long day, tough race. Finally on top, so I’m over the moon.
‘The whole weekend has been good. I’ve had some little setbacks along the way but I knew on Friday we had the pace.
‘Just a couple mistakes here and there. Today we managed to put it together. We did the perfect strategy and it all paid off.
‘Thanks to McLaren, everyone. I’ll give a shout out to my mum and dad, of course.’
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