Yes, you read that right… reports from France have suggested US President Donald Trump could be set to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car in Texas next week
Donald Trump will not be driving a Formula 1 car next week, Mirror Sport can confirm. That was the fanciful claim made during a live broadcast from the Canadian Grand Prix on French television this weekend, sparking widespread confusion online.
Of course, it sounds like an entirely ridiculous rumour, despite Trump being acquainted with McLaren chief executive Zak Brown. And a McLaren spokesperson has confirmed as much, telling Mirror Sport when we approached the team for comment: “Not true, he won’t be driving our car.”
The claim was reported on French television channel Canal+ during their live coverage of practice in Montreal. And, naturally, the rumour made its way onto social media where it began to get some traction.
The claim was that Trump might be set to get the chance to drive an F1 car at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. It was not specified which car it would have been, other than that it was said to be a McLaren, which would surely have to be specially modified to fit the US President.
The fanciful rumour was perhaps made more believable by the specific mention of McLaren. Trump was hosted by the team at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix and is said to have a personal relationship with the team’s American chief executive Brown.
McLaren were criticised for hosting Trump in their garage last May, when he was running for the Presidency. Plenty of fans slammed the team for giving the controversial 79-year-old the VIP treatment, but McLaren later issued a statement defending themselves for welcoming him into their inner sanctum.
Their statement read: “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 Racing was chosen as the representative of F1 which gave us the opportunity to showcase the world-class engineering that we bring to motorsport.”
Lando Norris won that Miami race, his first victory in F1, and said afterwards that it was “an honour” to be congratulated by Trump as they spoke after the Grand Prix. “I didn’t see him in the garage, to be honest. I was busy prepping for the race, but he saw me afterwards, and he came up to congratulate me,” said the Brit.
“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 respects for what you’ve done… Donald is someone that you’ve got to have a lot of respect for in many ways.”
