McLaren accepted a request for Donald Trump to visit its garage at Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix out of respect and recognition for the office of President of the United States.
Former US president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Trump, who is in the middle of a hush money trial spanning several weeks, has been a guest at the Miami race with a major security presence.
As part of the visit, Trump appeared in the McLaren garage with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, alongside FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei.
He was then pictured with Brown at the front of the garage.
“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,” the team said.
“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.”
There was a Trump presidential campaign fundraiser planned around the Miami GP before it was blocked by race organisers.
It was widely reported that a friend of Trump had planned to hold the fundraiser in F1’s primary hospitality, the Paddock Club, charging $250,000 a ticket.
