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McLaren has reportedly denied reports of USA President Donald Trump driving one of its F1 cars next week at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin. The Papaya team has cooled down the speculations, saying Trump won't be driving their car.
Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America (USA), has a close relationship with the Woking-based squad. In the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, he turned up at the team garage as their guest and posed with the team.
While the Papaya team received criticism, they maintained their apolitical stand. The team stated that the Office of the POTUS made a request to visit their garage, and they obliged.
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Meanwhile, according to a report from Canal+, Donald Trump is likely to test one of McLaren's F1 cars at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) situated in Austin, Texas. The test is reportedly going to be held next week in Austin.
However, when Crash Net claimed that, after reaching for confirmation, the Papaya squad denied the rumors.
"[Donald Trump] won't be driving our car," a McLaren spokesperson told Crash Net.
While the Woking-based squad has rubbished the rumors, their earlier partnership with Trump was widely covered during the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. The USA President also took credit for Lando Norris' win that weekend, referring to himself as a lucky charm.
Interestingly, Donald Trump is also celebrating his 79th birthday on June 14. At this age, it will be interesting to see if he chooses to jump into an F1 car and drive at a speed of 300 km/h.
When McLaren had to defend inviting Donald Trump to its garage in Miami
In an unexpected crossover, USA President Donald Trump was spotted at the Papaya's team garage during the 2024 Miami Grand Prix as a guest. He was running for the Presidency at that time, with elections yet to happen.
Trump turned up in his iconic 'Make America Great Again' cap and greeted team boss Zak Brown and driver Lando Norris, who in fact won the first race of his career that weekend.
However, Trump's visit led to a wave of criticism for Zak Brown and co. as they had invited a political figure while the FIA rules clearly restrict drivers and other entities from making political statements in Formula 1.
After backlash, the McLaren issued a statement and said (via The Race):
“McLaren is a non-political organization; however, 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 alongside the president of the FIA and the CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1. We were honored to be chosen as the representative of F1, which gave us the opportunity to showcase the world-class engineering that we bring to motorsport."
Meanwhile, McLaren went on to with the 2024 Constructors' Championship with Norris finishing second behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers' standings.
