Sheldon van der Linde

Sheldon van der Linde is a South African racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for BMW M Team WRT, sharing the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 with Robin Frijns and Rene Rast. A BMW factory driver since 2019, he won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship in 2022.

At the 2026 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, van der Linde and his teammates claimed victory, making him the first South African to win an FIA WEC race outright and the first African to triumph in the Hypercar era. Earlier in 2025, he won the Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama with his brother Kelvin and Augusto Farfus, driving a BMW M4 GT3 for Team WRT.

Van der Linde missed the 2026 season opener at Imola but returned for Spa, where his performance set the benchmark for what the BMW programme can achieve when its pace and strategy align perfectly across a six-hour race.