McLaren racing "in honour of Mansour Ojjeh" in France

McLaren

McLaren racing "in honour of Ojjeh" in France

Ojjeh died earlier this month aged 68

Ewan Gale

Thursday 17 June 2021 09:30

McLaren will be racing in honour of Mansour Ojjeh at this weekend's French Grand Prix.

French-born Saudi billionaire and former McLaren shareholder Ojjeh died during the course of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

Ahead of the return to a more traditional racing venue in Paul Ricard, team principal Andreas Seidl paid tribute to Ojjeh and insisted he would remain part of the team.

Article continues under video

“We’ll be racing in honour of Mansour Ojjeh this weekend," said Seidl. "He was and always will be an integral part of the McLaren family and a true inspiration to all of us.”

On the objectives of the weekend, Seidl added: “After taking the time to analyse and understand the data from Baku, it’s clear that we still need to continue to take steps forward as a team and extract the most out of our package as we compete in a very close battle with our competitors.

"The Circuit Paul Ricard is a different style of track compared to previous races and therefore it’s difficult to understand the pecking order ahead of the weekend.

McLaren qualifying a "priority" in France

Monaco and Azerbaijan saw Ferrari take the initiative in the race for third in the constructors' championship, with the Scuderia now holding a two-point lead.

Seidl explained: "Our priority going forward is to qualify well in order to put ourselves in the best position possible to score the most points on Sundays.

"We remain focused and determined to once again fight for good points this weekend."