Lando Norris, who took his first Formula 1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, said it was an ‘honor’ that Donald Trump supported him from the McLaren garage.
The embattled former president was flanked by his Secret Service security team as he arrived at Hard Rock Stadium to spend time with McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
He also met with F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem before congratulating the 24-year-old Briton on his first victory.
“He saw me afterwards and came up to congratulate me, so I think it’s an honour,” he told Mail Sport.
“Any time someone like this comes up to you and takes time out of their life to pay respect for what you’ve done… it has to be an honor,” he continued.
Donald Trump congratulated Lando Norris on Sunday on his first Formula 1 victory in Miami
“It’s an honour,” the 24-year-old told the Mail when asked about the former president’s performance
Norris described the interaction as a “cool moment,” revealing that the current Republican Party frontrunner said he was “a good luck charm.”
“I don’t know if he’ll go to more races now,” joked Norris.
‘But there were a lot of special, cool people here this weekend. Donald is someone you have to have a lot of respect for in many ways and someone like that who recognizes what you can do, and the work ethic that goes into things, you have to be grateful for that.”
The Republican candidate spent time in the McLaren garage chatting with CEO Zak Brown
The politician, who was flanked by secret service agents, also met with F1 and FIA bosses
The papaya team previously distanced itself from the also orange politician.
“McLaren is a non-political organization, but 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 together with the President of the FIA and the CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1,” the team said in a statement.
Norris took victory over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third place.