Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson (30) during media availabilities at F1 Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

LAS VEGAS–New Zealander Liam Lawson said he was just joking when he criticized McLaren for playing the British anthem after Formula One victories rather than that of the team’s founder and his compatriot Bruce McLaren.

Lawson, who races for Red Bull-owned RB, said in a recent podcast that British-based championship leaders McLaren were really “a New Zealand team.”

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He pointed out also that Red Bull, though British-based, played the Austrian anthem.

“I think this is stuff that I’m learning in Formula One,” Lawson told reporters when asked at the Las Vegas Grand Prix whether he had received any feedback from McLaren.

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“I was laughing when I mentioned this comment in a podcast. And it was more of a joke, but obviously it got taken very literally,” he said.

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“Obviously, I’m very proud to be from New Zealand and our motorsport history. Bruce McLaren is somebody who is an absolute icon in New Zealand in motorsport. So somebody I looked up to and learned a lot about, let’s say, when I was younger.”

McLaren founded his team in 1963 and entered grand prix racing in 1966. He died while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood in southern England in 1970.

The McLaren Group is owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat.