McLaren have explained the reason behind former US president Donald Trump’s visit to their garage at the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

The 45th president of the United States was a surprise guest at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium ahead of Sunday’s grand prix, causing a paparazzi frenzy.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 election, was seen visiting McLaren’s garage, where he spoke with the British team’s CEO Zak Brown, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1/Liberty Media CEOS.

Following the visit, McLaren released a statement which 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 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.”

Security surrounding the event in Florida was stepped up following Trump’s decision to visit the event.

The 77-year-old is currently on trial in New York after being charged with 34 counts of fraud, relating to hush-money that was paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and argues the allegations he faces are not criminal.

He is the first US president in history to face a criminal trial. 

Trump served as the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.