Getty Images

Miami Grand Prix winner Lando Norris mentioned that Donald Trump jokingly referred to himself as the British driver's "lucky charm" following the former US President's visit to the McLaren team prior to Sunday's race.

Norris surged to an unexpected victory, surpassing world champion and current Formula One leader Max Verstappen to claim his maiden win in an F1 Grand Prix. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, arrived at Hard Rock Stadium before the race and paid a visit to the McLaren garage, where he met with the team's CEO Zak Brown. Later, he sought out Norris after the race.

"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," said Norris. I guess it's an honour, because whenever you have someone like this, it has to be an honour 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's my win, so I don't know if he's going to come to more races now," added the 24-year-old. Norris expressed gratitude for Trump's remarks during their post-race conversation.

"There's a lot of special people, or cool people that have been here this weekend, 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, a cool moment," he said.


Norris pipped Verstappen to first place at the Miami Grand Prix. GETTY IMAGES
Norris pipped Verstappen to first place at the Miami Grand Prix. GETTY IMAGES


Following Trump's visit to the McLaren garage, which attracted a significant crowd of spectators, the team released a statement. Trump was photographed post-race wearing a hat displaying his election campaign slogan, standing alongside Norris and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

"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," 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," they added.

Norris secured the win ahead of Red Bull's Verstappen, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finishing in third place.