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.

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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 Zak 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 for welcoming him into their inner sanctum.

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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 .

"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."

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