F1 insider reveals how umbrella gaffe forced major team exit to rivals McLaren

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F1 insider reveals how umbrella gaffe forced major team exit to rivals McLaren

Mansour Ojjeh was the CEO of Tag

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 9 May 2026 12:15

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Former Ferrari F1 general manager Peter Windsor has revealed the bizarre reason why Mansour Ojjeh opted to take his sponsorship away from Williams and instead sponsor McLaren.

Ojjeh was the CEO of TAG between 1977 right up until his death in 2021, and in the late 70s led the company into a partnership with Williams F1 team.

In 1979, TAG Group successfully secured the position as principal sponsor for Williams, and Ojjeh became the holding company's face in the paddock, regularly seen at race weekends as Williams experienced a highly-successful period.

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1980 yielded a championship double for the Grove outfit, with Alan Jones taking the drivers' championship, and the team securing the constructors' title, while 1982 saw Keke Rosberg win the drivers' championship for the team.

However, in 1983, Ojjeh's TAG Group opted to withdraw funding for Williams and instead pile all their eggs into the McLaren basket. TAG owned 14.32 per cent of the McLaren group, and Ojjeh partnered Ron Dennis in managing the F1 team.

McLaren had a highly-successful period in the 80s using TAG-badged powertrains, but even when that partnership came to an end in 1987, TAG and Ojjeh still maintained a powerful influence within the team.

Now, former Williams and Ferrari employee Windsor has revealed the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to Ojjeh withdrawing his funding from the Williams team, citing a bizarre umbrella incident at the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix.

Why did Ojjeh leave Williams?

Windsor has claimed that Ojjeh was billed for an umbrella by the Williams team after he had used it at the 1983 Monaco GP, something which the Saudi Arabian was not happy about.

"Monaco 83 was significant as that was the final moment of Mansour Ojjeh deciding to leave Williams to go to McLaren," Windsor revealed on his YouTube channel. "And we all know what happened thereafter. He financed the Tag through his company. He financed the Porsche engine project for Ron Dennis. And look how that changed the world.

"McLaren really took off. And then it just, was just a complete revolution with Mansor Ojjeh there.

"The reason why Mansour [left Williams]. The final thing was when Mansour borrowed an umbrella from Williams for the race and Williams didn't get it back. Fair enough, Mansour Ojjeh had been in the rush to get away from the track after the win, the odds of him, actually, or anybody around him saying 'Oh, yeah. Must get that umbrella back to the Williams motor home'.

"And so it got lost somewhere, nicked probably by someone. Anyway, a few days later, Mansour got an invoice from Williams from the umbrella. He said: 'That's enough. I've had enough of this.'"

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