Donald Trump, Zak Brown

Norris calls Trump “someone you’ve got to have a lot of respect for”

Formula 1

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Lando Norris praised Donald Trump following his victory in yesterday’s Miami Grand Prix, which the controversial ex-US president attended.

Trump met McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown at the track ahead of Sunday’s race. The team advised RaceFans he was not present as their guest, but they were asked to allow him to visit their garage.

Norris did not meet Trump until after the race. “I didn’t see him in the garage,” he said. “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 them to come up to you, to take time out of their life, to pay their respect for what you’ve done.”

Trump “said he was my lucky charm because it’s my win,” Norris related. “So I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races now.

“But there’s a lot of special people or cool people that have been here this weekend. Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways.

“For anyone like that who acknowledges what you can go out and do and acknowledges the work ethic that goes into things, you got to be thankful for that, and I was. So a cool moment, and that’s all.”

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Trump, who was elected to the presidency in 2016 but failed to win re-election four years later, is a polarising figure. He refused to concede defeat in 2020 and was accused of inciting a mob which invaded the US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021, resulting in the deaths of five people including a police officer.

Lando Norris
Norris met Trump after Sunday’s race
He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a ‘hush money’ payment to an adult film star. This is one of many legal threats Trump faces: Other cases are planned concerning his alleged role in the January 6th insurrection, illegal retention of classified documents, election interference, defamation and fraud.

Trump was pictured after the race, in a hat bearing his election campaign slogan, alongside Norris and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Norris’ team said in a statement: “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.”

Other Formula 1 drivers have commented less favourably on Trump in the past. Lewis Hamilton previously referred to his 2016 election victory as part of “a pretty terrible year for the world.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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106 comments on “Norris calls Trump “someone you’ve got to have a lot of respect for””

  1. Nah, that’s not right… What happened to keeping politics out of F1? Or is it only the politics they don’t like? You don’t have to have respect for Trump, most drivers’ are young and impressionable, not right to use them in this way at all. This never should have got through the FIA’s policies. F1 should never a be a venue for political campaigning.

    I hope they have a good look at what went wrong here to allow this.

  2. Wow what an incredibly awkward position to put Lando in.

    1. I fully agree. I cringed.

    2. 100% browns fault

      1. Ushered in by the Saudis – Brown signed on the dotted line long ago, now doesn’t get a say.

    3. notagrumpyfan
      6th May 2024, 6:54

      It must have taken some PR prepping for Norris to utter those lines.

    4. Yeah, that really is a bad move from the FIA, from Liberty and from the promoter of the race as well as McLaren to allow such a controversial person, especially when he’s in the middle of a re-election campaign to have such a prominent role and be so visible as if he were still in an official position.

      1. So it would have been okay if it was Biden given he is still in an official position?

    5. Why? It was Trump who won the race.
      Bringing narcism to a whole new level..

    6. That’s probably the best way to put it. What is a driver to say and do, other than thank and show appreciation at such a moment? (Thinking of Putin shaking hands in Sochi some years ago too)

      Certainly not keeping politics out of the sport with US elections coming up next year, is it.

    7. Agreed, Suspect he just turned up and who was going to tell him to sling his hook? And for Brown its doubly worse, 1. he is american 2. he was in Florida. Don’t want to make too much of this with some silly rule. He handled it as best as he could and be done with it.

  3. Drumpf’s orange spray-on tan now makes a lot more sense: It turns out it was papaya, not orange, and he’s a big McLaren fan. This creep makes Bernie look like an angel. It’s weird that McLaren would want to tarnish their reputation by associating with such a petulant loser.

    1. Glad someone else hasn’t forgotten #makedonalddrumpfagain… :)

    2. Case of “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I guess”

      1. Aint that the truth

    3. I can’t imagine for a second that McLaren had any kind of say in this – and you can’t very well say anything other than what Lando said when answering the questions.

      1. Yeah, I’d guess it was something cooked up between Liberty and the Promoter (possibly to lessen the chance of his camp lashing out at them for blocking that fundraiser) with at least tactile support from the FIA (given that the FIA president was with him at the thing before the race).

      2. one could probably jump a bit more around words, to be honest, if he really wanted to

  4. Ugh, well that was brave of you, Lando (or worse he actually believes it). Look where the man has lead my country, but yeah, gotta have a lot of respect.

    1. The Skeptic
      6th May 2024, 4:50

      Lando did well.

      Look where Trump has led your country?! Whilst he is clearly not a nice man… he hasn’t been in power for 4 years. So the current problems are not really his responsibility. On some measures he was quite successful… While he was President, the economy grew, he didn’t start any new wars, and despots like Putin refrained from invading their neighbours, and saw off some trade threats from China.

      1. First of all – he put the current majority in the supreme court in place that has done more damage in the last few years, he’s severely damaged the relationships with NATO countries, with Europe, worsened it’s situation vs. Russia, China, Iran etc. And the way he finished the Afghan war was the groundwork for the rout pulling out became.

        And you seem to completely ignore his mismanagement of the Covid crisis which caused far more deaths than should have been the case. As for the economy – it’s doing a lot better under better policy for the last few years, yes. But it did not grow much under Trump.

        1. I still respect you even after this atrocious take

          1. Muhammad Bin redux? Is that what your name stands for. I respect your right to support everything awful in the world, but I won’t be saying “You gotta respect MBr for everything he’s accomplished…” Too many people seem not to realize you can be conservative and not support this utter black hole of integrity, intelligence or basically anything of value. You realize the guy would be disgusted to meet you in person, right? He utterly despises his own supporters. It’s the greatest irony of all.

          2. That post might have meant something, but you have the credibility of a child throwing a temper tantrum.

          3. Yeah. Credibility is extremely varied among this ubiquitous group of anonymous users and if call something a tantrum, it must be so…

      2. Let’s keep this discussion off of this site please.

        1. Anthony H. Tellier
          6th May 2024, 13:12

          PLEASE! However, Hixxr DID go to the 1936 Olympics ….

  5. Ugh, well that was brave of you, Lando (or worse, he actually believes it). Look where the man has lead my country, but yeah, gotta have a lot of respect.

    1. some racing fan
      6th May 2024, 5:11

      Yeah. McLaren should apologize to Lando for that. Truly a grotesque sight. And the organizers should apologize to everyone for allowing that appalling excuse and black hole of a human being to be there. There are other words I could use to describe that man but they aren’t allowed here.

      1. The title looks worse than Lando’s attempts to get out of this saying something vaguely positive but not too supportive in the text.

        But it really sharply contrasts with all efforts McLaren makes towards sensitivities, towards diversity, tolerance for mental illnesses and what they present themselves to stand for, hugely hurting any such messaging IMO.

      2. There are other words I could use to describe that man but they aren’t allowed here.

        I’m not certain, but I think “criminal” is allowed.
        (To be specific: Referencing the property valuation fraud case, rather than the ongoing hush money accounting fraud)

        @Nick T – Another man’s faults are not your burden.

        1. But they actually are my burden. Are you high or do you just not think about your comments?

      3. It does not look good but if you were in his shoes and had his responsibilites at Mclaren, how would we deal with it? He did his best and its done. We move on….

        1. I would have said “It was nice of the former president to congratulate me.” Boom, job done. No incident. Not that hard, but maybe Lando is a mimbo.

  6. Admins: plz delete all those duplicate posts (usually it doesn’t allow that – not sure what happened)

  7. You gotta have a lot of respect for a grifting wannabe dictator. Barf, gross, yuck. Bad look man, real bad in my book.

    1. some racing fan
      6th May 2024, 5:12

      Real bad. Trump’s presence there put a huge stain on the event and Norris’s victory IMO

      1. Anthony H. Tellier
        6th May 2024, 13:17

        So true … Trump is not even an office holder. Just indicted in courts of law. And this was at the (once) “the pinnacle of motor racing”. Sullied, I swear. Zack: have you no decency?

    2. Quite, yeah.

    3. Totally agree, this puts Lando in a Stormy situation and not a good look; and it puts a dark shadow on his first win. I certainly hope his words praising that guy was not sincere.

      I think this error in judgment should be blamed on Zak Brown, he decides on who gets to visit their garage and which PR direction McLaren takes. It’s obvious that his visit was endorsed by McLaren and FIA.

      It’s a bad look, and let’s please keep him and politics out of racing.

      1. “… a Stormy situation”

        Well played.

  8. How generous to take time out of defending a criminal trial and racking up contempt fines for intimidating jurors and court staff. He doesn’t work for Mclaren or F1 I would have walked the other direction when I saw him coming.

  9. Oh wow this gets even worse for Norris. Winning your first race mainly due to luck and then praising a despot-in-training in the same weekend.

  10. some racing fan
    6th May 2024, 5:02

    Wow. Uh… what an awful position Lando was put in. Trump is someone no one should have any level of respect for. Having Trump there was a huge stain on the event and the organizers owe everyone- especially Lando an apology. Disgusting, grotesque sights like Trump are deeply anti-social and do nothing for the event other than harm it.

    Sincerely,
    An American guy who is actually aware of how dangerous and embarassing Trump is

    1. Why are you talking about Justin Trudeau?

  11. some racing fan
    6th May 2024, 5:16

    Wow. uh… what a terrible position Lando was put in there. He deserves an apology from McLaren and the organizers should apologize to everyone for allowing Dump’s disgusting, grotesque, irredemable self to even be there and spoil the event for everyone. What a huge stain on the event his presence has been.

    Sincerely,
    An American guy who is aware of how dangerous and embarassing 45/Dump is

  12. Deerhunter
    6th May 2024, 5:42

    Like, why be surprised at this?

    Lando was born into wealth with golfing as his favorite pastime, he has a lot more in common with Trump than most of us here at this site.

    1. Lando was born into wealth with golfing as his favorite pastime, he has a lot more in common with Trump than most of us here at this site.

      What!!! Lando cheats at golf ?!!

    2. That is about as tenious a common link you are try to make there. Lots of people are born into wealth, like golf, and never get anywhere been a 45 fan.

    3. The comment sent up a flag definitely. Sure, awkward situation, but there are ways and there are ways… This sounded like a semi-endorsement when, really, if you disliked Trump’s politics that could have been avoided. Kind of muddied what was real enjoyment at seeing him win yesterday.

  13. lol. Trump bad, but can’t wait for the Azerbaijan GP…

    1. We shouldn’t be racing there or many of the places we do and fans CONSTANTLY complain about it. So, this not some sort of double standard on the part of fans.

  14. Is this april the 1st?

  15. I feel very sorry for Lando that he was put in that position.
    Reminds me of Putin at the first Russian Grand Prix.

    1. Yeah, that is exactly what it looked like.

  16. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    6th May 2024, 6:33

    Very awkward – Lando will be hoping these comments disappear as soon as possible.

    1. Or just honest. Trump has tens of millions of US supporters, it’s not inconceivable that others feel the same.

      But at least Trump-fan Norris won’t be able to vote, so it’s a harmless opinion.

      1. notagrumpyfan
        6th May 2024, 9:30

        But at least Trump-fan Norris won’t be able to vote, so it’s a harmless opinion.

        But there might be Norris-fans who are allowed to vote, and who miss mental ability to identify Trump for what he really is.

      2. “So I guess 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.” Not exactly a glowing appraisal, it’s rather says ‘thanks I suppose’ than anything else.

  17. Based Lando

  18. Jason Dull
    6th May 2024, 7:39

    Great day AND comments for Lando! Smart kid!

    1. You mean it was more like a day like when the F1 winner had to shake Putin’s hand.

      1. Jason Dull
        7th May 2024, 7:04

        Not at all. Trump is not Putin…

  19. I noticed beforehand that Trump was in attendance, but I’m still surprised he managed to find himself from the Miami Autodrome boundaries out of all places.

  20. what the… why, why Lando, why…? Not his fault to be put in that position, and let’s remember when they forced drivers to shake hands with Putin on the podium of the russian race, but still. I wonder if it’s ignorance, or was he more or less forced into this. Most likeable guy on the grid, first win, first really awkward comment to put some shade over the rest, how quickly it all progressed

  21. “Papaya spray-tan” sounds better than orange, don’t you think?

  22. I’m hopeful that Lando’s words stem from ignorance and naivety. Brown, on the other hand, has never earned my respect; he consistently portrays himself as a hypocritical sore loser. He’s just confirming it.

    1. I think media organisations should
      display a Viewer/ Reader discretionary advice if displaying images of or comments from Brown.

      Something like
      “Readers/Viewers may find the following images and words deeply disturbing.”

    2. I disagree – it would have been ignorant and naive to have spoken out against Trump. He said something that skirted around the issue and got on with celebrating his win. The story would have been 1000x bigger if he’s either criticised Trump or said anything that could be construed as political.

    3. Brown oozes “slimy salesman” vibes.

  23. A truly awful position for Lando to be in but he comes across as extremely uninformed and naive. I mean making favourable comments about Trump! Surely he must know something about his past. Imagine if this had been Lewis or Vettel, or Alonso.

    You have to blame the team though. They should have declined the invitation on the basis that they don’t get involved in politics. But maybe Brown is a Trump supporter. A lot of the very rich are.

    I truly hope they don’t win any more races this year. Dead to me. They need to apologise to Nando.

    1. @phil-f1-21

      I truly hope they don’t win any more races this year. Dead to me.

      I hope they keep winning races because I want McLaren to be successful again, not because I’m a joyless politics-addicted snob.

  24. This is so weird and so wrong… But I also must say that if it were Biden, it wouldn’t be a big deal for the mass media. But I think that F1 is too fast for his mind anyway. He would probably look for Senna or Lauda to take pictures with, and offer green card to all the drivers who would have it.
    Trump somehow belongs to F1, a clown in a circus. And when F1 goes to USA it really, really remembers that that is what it is – a circus.

    1. Biden doesn’t have 91 felonies on the shelf.

      1. And Biden is the current president too, which makes him an official. Still wouldn’t be a great move with elections in US next year.

        1. Yes. You can understand inviting or hosting a sitting president. But Trump is only a candidate and one with an appalling record of law breaking, misogyny and attacking minorities.

          1. Jason Dull
            7th May 2024, 7:12

            When did he attack minorities? When he called Obama “the first clean articulate Blackman”? When he said you have to have an Indian accent to walk into a 7-11? When he told creepy stories about “Corn-Pop” and rubbing the blonde hair on his legs in front of young colored boys? Nope; that was ALL Biden…

  25. It was nice of Trump to make sure his skin was McLaren team colours.

    1. @sonnycrockett :)
      Though technically Trump’s hue is the colour my papaya goes after a few days forgotten at the bottom of the fridge.

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      7th May 2024, 13:09

      Ha-ha!

  26. The next worst thing after having to speak to the orange round one one is hearing him take credit for Lando’s win at his next rally.

    “I was theeere, I turn up and good things happen to a Team with Low Ratings. I know a lot about racing cars more than just about anyone and I told them what their Strategy should be and look they Win!”

    1. This may even happen.

  27. George Washington
    6th May 2024, 13:01

    So is Biden given the opportunity to be with the winner in Texas? This is a really bad look for F1, McLaren and Norris…

  28. People are more upset seeing Trump in McLaren’s garage than Putin giving out trophies at the Russian Grand Prix a couple years ago. I don’t what it is that sparks so much hatred but it’s disgusting to see from motorsport fans.

    1. notagrumpyfan
      6th May 2024, 14:43

      People are more upset seeing Trump in McLaren’s garage than Putin giving out trophies at the Russian Grand Prix

      You clearly missed the comment section after that Russian GP.

      I don’t (know) what it is that sparks so much hatred

      Not so much hatred, but a well deserved dose of disdain regarding the guy’s words and actions.
      Even for those in his echo chamber it should be clear to see.

    2. Whataboutism aside. That’s nonsense, you must be new to the sport.

      Every single time Putin showed up in the cooldown room and there were awkward handshakes and what not, it got the exact same negative response this gets. There’s no “everyone was super okay with that” either.

      Turns out if you’re a bad person in general you get “hatred” irregardless of nationality.

      1. Yeah whataboutism is only reserved for discussing drivers and teams

    3. Said appearances on the podium were heavily criticized at the time, too. Hamilton was lauded for supposedly ignoring said president, but then in a somewhat amusing twist, it turned out he simply hadn’t seen him and was then rather enthusiastic about the idea of said president visiting the event.

      But anyway, while it’s clear that McLaren’s guest wasn’t to many people’s liking, we can’t assume Brown and Norris feel the same. It’s not awkward or uncomfortable if they’re genuinely excited. And, given the popularity of their guest, it’s certainly not impossible.

    4. You don’t know????

      So you just want to gloss over the fact that Chump is a convicted rapist?
      or a con-artist.
      or has been spewing Hitler quotes.
      or threatening to pull out of NATO while encouraging Putin to ‘do whatever he wants’ to Europe.
      etc??

      What’s disgusting to see is apologists like you defending trash like that on here.

      1. Jason Dull
        7th May 2024, 7:17

        What are you talking about this rape conviction? The civil trial sham? That wasn’t a rape conviction.

        You completely missed the point of the NATO deal. He wants the other countries to pay in their share to be in NATO…the US shouldn’t have to fund the rest of the world. You certainly can not think he just out-right told them that for no reason???

        What are these Hitler qoutes?

        1. And you (like Trump) misunderstand how NATO works. Noone ‘pays’ for NATO, there is instead an agreement for each member state to spend 2% of it’s GDP on defence spending. Incidentally, what is counted as defence spending varies per country.

          Trump actually believed other countries should pay the US, or spend their defence budgets buying US made arms. Then again, he completely misunderstood how trade balances work and what they mean as well so no surprise.
          He is what we call unaware of his own inability, the most dangerous kind of person to have running your country.

          1. Jason Dull
            10th May 2024, 6:09

            https://www.forces.net/news/world/nato-which-countries-pay-their-share-defence

            “The nations falling short of the alliance’s target in 2023 were France (1.90%), Montenegro (1.87%), North Macedonia (1.87%), Bulgaria (1.84%), Croatia (1.79%), Albania (1.76%), the Netherlands (1.70%), Norway (1.67%), Denmark (1.65%), Czech Republic (1.50%), Portugal (1.48%), Italy (1.46%), Canada (1.38%), Slovenia (1.35%), Turkey (1.31%), Spain (1.26%), Belgium (1.13%) and Luxembourg (0.72%).”

    5. lol, you are obviously are ignoring the possibly millions of comments made about Putin/Russian GP being awful and the same about Saudi/MBS. But OK…

  29. Wow, what a mistake to invite a criminal pathological liar with 91 felony counts to McLaren. What on earth were they thinking?

    1. Agreed.
      McLaren: ‘Look guests and sponsors, now you can rub shoulders with a convicted rapists in our garage and hospitality … but ladies, we’re still very pro diversity, oh and we’re also very supportive of LGBTQ+ rights even though the ‘orange rapist’ is trying to marginalize you too’.

      Talk about sending a mixed message!!

  30. I don’t blame Lando – what was he supposed to say? If he’s said “no comment” or had gone on the attack, it would have been taken as a major political incident and the guy just wanted to celebrate his first win.

    It does confirm 100% though that F1 is indeed, all about politics. They’ll try and pretend otherwise when it has the potential to get in the way of them making money but it’s a blatant lie.

  31. Chris (@racefanchris)
    6th May 2024, 14:17

    Some of the comments on here are actually quite shocking. I actually agree with the conduct of Lando, McLaren, and Formula 1 here. Like it or not, Donald Trump is a former (and quite possibly future) President of the United States. The office demands respect. My take is that is what Lando is referring to. I have never met a current or former President before, but I imagine it would be a noteworthy experience. Besides, what is the alternative? Lando, Zak Brown and Stefano Domenicali throwing shade at Donald Trump? Would that really be a better look for Formula 1? Given American politics is split pretty much 50/50, there is a good chance it would not do much for the share price! Formula 1 is a world championship, that by very nature means sometimes you will have to deal with people you do not agree with. There are many things Donald Trump has said and done that I do not like. With no intention of getting political, no-platforming is a horrific trend that achieves nothing.

    1. The office demands respect

      Well see now there’s your problem @racefanchris: Trump has shown time and again in mindblowingly eggregious ways that he has zero respect for anyone or anything but himself – including that office and the American voters.

  32. Lando did more work today than The Donald has ever done in his life. One day Norris may see that.

  33. No matter how often I read this headline, I just don’t see how you would end up having any respect for Trump.

    I mean, you can put aside the lawsuits… The insurrection instigation… The many many failed businesses… The fraud… Four years of rather poor presidentship… The many icky sociale media posts…

    But even then he’s still Donald Trump. And he shouldn’t have been let near the paddock, let alone get photo ops with a team and the FIA boss. Zak really deserves the scrutiny he’s getting.

  34. McLaren had no choice as trump might be president again and if he felt slighted or embarrassed at the f1 he could stick an extra 20% import tax on European sports cars. McLaren took one for the complete F1 family. Let’s forget about it and move on.

  35. Nope, you don’t have to have any respect for rapists and con-artists.
    It was the only dark blot on McLarens weekend that they chose to entertain and celebrate such a monumental PoS as Chump.

  36. Wow, didn’t realise Trump was there and visited them. Bad luck for Norris and McLaren to be involved with this idiot though.

    1. It wasn’t bad luck. Brown seemed to actively solicit it.

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