On this week #5 - Jody Scheckter: a decade of racing before tasting the fruits of success
On January 25, 1950, Jody Scheckter – 1979 Formula 1 World Champion with Ferrari – was born in the South African city of East London. When he was 20 Scheckter moved to England and rapidly rose through the ranks to reach Formula 1 in 1972, when he made his debut at the USA Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, finishing ninth with a McLaren-Ford. As well as McLaren, Scheckter drove for Tyrrell (from 1974 to 1976), Wolf (from 1977 to 1978) and Ferrari (from 1979 to1980).
In total, the South African contested 112 grands prix, winning 10 of them. His record of achievement also features three pole positions, five fastest laps, and 33 podiums. In 1973 he won the SCCA title in America, better known as Formula 5000.
Scheckter also holds two slightly odd records in Formula 1: he is the only driver to have won a grand prix in a car with more than four wheels (the Tyrrell P34 six-wheeler, with which he won the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix) and he is the only reigning world champion not to qualify for a grand prix (Canada 1980).
His finest win though was definitely the 1979 Italian Grand Prix. That momentous victory, ahead of his team mate Gilles Villeneuve, gave Scheckter the drivers' championship to crown a sporting career that had begun nearly 10 years earlier.
He retired at the end of 1980, when he was just 30, and then became a successful businessman in various industries, finally specialising in organic food and farming. Today he is the owner of Laverstoke Park in the English county of Hampshire: a facility of more than 1000 hectares, which is also famous for its mozzarella di bufala cheese. Dairy production at the farm was paused at the end of 2023 due to rising production costs, although other activities such as winemaking continue.
In 2019, Scheckter was invited by Formula 1 to drive the Ferrari 312 T4 with which he won his title 40 years earlier, completing a few exhibition laps at Monza and meeting some of his old mechanics: a real trip down memory lane that brought all the emotions flooding back.
