A bizarre report claiming US President Donald Trump will be driving a McLaren Formula 1 car at Circuit of The Americas next week have been immediately rejected by the team.

The initial report comes from French F1 broadcaster Canal+, though it has been the reporting has been categorically denied to PlanetF1.com.

US President Donald Trump linked to F1 car drive at COTA

In the midst of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, reports emerged that Donald Trump, President of the United States, would be turn laps at the Circuit of The Americas behind the wheel of a Formula 1 machine.

Those reports originated from the French media, including Canal+, during its live coverage of Free Practice 3 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Details of the reported outing were sparse beyond claims the President would drive an F1 car, and that his laps would come at the purpose-built race track in Austin, Texas.

It is not clear exactly what sparked the report.

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The US President is no stranger to the motorsport world.

In 2024, Trump attended the Miami Grand Prix where he spoke with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

McLaren issued a statement following Trump’s visit to its garage stating: “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.”

The Miami race saw McLaren driver Lando Norris take his first win in Formula 1; the Briton noted after the race that President Trump dubbed himself Norris’ “lucky charm.”

Active US presidents are not allowed to drive cars on public roads for security reasons, though they can pilot machinery on private property, such as Circuit of The Americas.

Former President Joe Biden made a point of driving a Ford F-150 Lightning in 2021 in order to promote American automotive manufacturing, while former President George W. Bush told Jay Leno in 2017 that he regularly drives on his family’s ranch, though he’d avoided public roads for over two decades.

While McLaren has stressed it has nothing to do with any proposed outing, it is possible one could occur at the wheel of a privately owned F1 car.