The Formula One team owner Ron Dennis said he wanted to wash his hands because he had “been shaking hands with Arabs all day”, an employment tribunal was told yesterday.

Peter Boland, a steward who worked for the McLaren chief, allegedly overheard the remark on a private jet. He told the hearing that Mr Dennis had been “culturally insensitive” by offering drinks to Arab business associates who had already declined them.

Mr Boland, 27, an engineering graduate, said he was surprised at the comment but added: “It was not for me to point out these gaffes.”

He says he was sacked after five years in 2007 and is claiming unfair dismissal and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

Mr Dennis, 60, whose wealth is estimated at £110 million, owns the team for which Lewis Hamilton, the world motor-racing champion, drives.

Mr Boland, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, was employed by Absolute Taste, a catering company serving guests at Formula One events, but he was seconded to Greyscape, a private company that flies Mr Dennis’s jet. He was dismissed after he fell asleep on board a flight carrying Mr Dennis.

At a preliminary hearing last year Mr Boland claimed he was dismissed because fellow staff thought he was gay. He said Mr Dennis treated him “dramatically” differently after word went around that he was homosexual.

After the incident on the flight in May 2007, Mr Boland was called to a meeting at the company’s headquarters and told he had two options: “Either take a compromise agreement or go to a tribunal”.

He was offered £8,000 in June that year, and said he then realised the decision to release him was because fellow workers thought he was gay. “Having to explain that I was not gay was extremely embarrassing for all concerned,” he said.

Mr Boland, who is representing himself, has accused three companies controlled by Mr Dennis – McLaren Group Limited, Absolute Taste and Greyscape – of the offences. The companies and Mr Dennis deny the allegations. The tribunal, in Southampton, continues.