Former President Donald Trump claimed he was Lando Norris’s “lucky charm” after the young racer clinched his first Formula 1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix.
The 2024 Miami Grand Prix concluded with Lando Norris claiming his first-ever Formula 1 victory. Norris took advantage of a critical moment when the safety car was deployed due to a crash between Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant and also had the optimal tire strategy.
An unexpected presence at the race was former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was visiting the McLaren garage.Trump, whose attendance at the event was a surprise to many, was seen engaging with various figures in the paddock but focused his attention on the day’s victor during the post-race celebrations.
Norris, while initially indifferent to Trump’s presence, shared his experience interacting with the former president. He commented during the Drivers’ Press Conference following the Grand Prix, as quoted by PlanetF1:
“I didn’t see him in the garage to be honest, 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 you – 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 was my win, so I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races now. But yeah, there’s a lot of special people, cool people that have been here this weekend.”
The Grand Prix winner continued:
“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. Cool moment, and that’s all.”
The Woking-based squad had initially faced some backlash from fans for hosting the former U.S President for the race at the Miami International Autodrome. In response, the team released the following statement ahead of the race, as quoted by The Race:
“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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