Sunday, June 6th, 2021
“Father” of the Lauda-Prost dominance
Formula 1 mourns key figure Ojjeh
Without him, the great successes of McLaren and the dominance of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost would not have been possible: Mansour Ojjeh shaped and promoted the racing team. Now the Saudi Arabian businessman has died in Geneva. He was 68 years old.
Formula 1 mourns McLaren’s long-time majority owner Mansour Ojjeh, one of the fathers of the great successes in the 1980s. The Saudi Arabian businessman died on Sunday morning at the age of 68 in Geneva, the team announced in the run-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In 1984 Ojjeh took over the majority in the traditional racing team, and his influence in Formula 1 had already been considerable.
“Mansour was someone with incredible talent, passion and energy, he was a giant of our sport,” said Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali on Sunday: “We will all miss him very much.”
From 1979, Ojjeh’s investment company TAG was the main sponsor of the Williams team, which won its first of numerous titles in the drivers ‘and manufacturers’ championships in the years that followed. From 1982 onwards, Ojjeh supported McLaren and financed the development of Porsche’s TAG turbo engine. With this he laid the foundation for the dominance of the team in the following years with the world champions Niki Lauda and Alain Prost.
“Mansour has been part of the heart and soul of this team for almost 40 years,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “He was fundamental to success and a true racer in every way.” Together with Ron Dennis, Ojjeh “set new standards for how a Formula 1 team can be run,” said Motorsport Director Toto Wolff from long-standing McLaren partner Mercedes: “We experienced great moments with them.”
.