Formula One drivers from South Africa Formula One drivers from South Africa There have been 23 Formula One drivers from South Africa, with 18 of them having started at least one Grand Prix, and only 4 of them having started more than four races. Jody Scheckter is by far the most prolific and successful South African driver, being the only one to have won a race. During his nine-year career Scheckter won ten races and the 1979 World Drivers' Championship. There has not been a driver from South Africa in Formula One since 1980. There are no South African drivers currently competing in Formula One, and
History of Formula One reliability. Despite his conflict with the "Commendatore" and his second driver status Lauda enjoyed immense respect from the Ferrari team, which did its best to give him a good car. There was in fact a very competitive field that year but no single challenger to the Austrian emerged and points taken away from Ferrari were shared between many teams and drivers. Surprisingly, the new Wolf team, born from the ashes of Frank Williams Racing Cars and Hesketh, made excellent use of its legacy with Jody Scheckter finishing second to Niki Lauda. 1977 also saw two radical technical innovations that would