McLaren remains steadfast in its claim of being "non-political" as the Formula 1 squad deals with criticism for allowing Donald Trump access to their garage area at the Miami Grand Prix.
It was previously revealed that race officials had prevented a business figure with ties to the former U.S. president from holding a $250,000-per-person fundraising event for Trump within the paddock club area.
Despite this, Trump was granted access to the circuit as those who purchase paddock club hospitality "can invite whoever they want," reported the Osterreich newspaper.
During his visit, Trump took the opportunity to pose for pictures in the pitlane with McLaren CEO Zak Brown, explored the garage under Brown's guidance, and engaged with team driver Lando Norris, alongside Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, before the drivers appeared on the podium on Sunday.
"He came up to congratulate me," Norris mentioned later. "It has to be an honour for someone like this to come up to you, take time out of their life, to pay their respect for what you've done."
"He said he was my lucky charm because it's my win," the British driver continued. "Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways. So yeah, a cool moment."
Speculation suggests that McLaren was selected for Trump's visit because it is now entirely owned by Bahrain, with RTL stating that the Kingdom is "closely linked" to the U.S. military.
A significant number of F1 enthusiasts on social media voiced their disapproval of McLaren's involvement in controversial U.S. politics.
The team clarified, "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 CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1."
"We were honoured that McLaren was chosen as the representative of F1 which gave us the opportunity to showcase the world class engineering that we bring to motorsport," added the team based in Woking.
