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luglio 24, 2020 - BMW Motorsport

BMW and South Africa: A very special relationship

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In the 2020 DTM season, the grid will feature two BMW works drivers from South Africa: Sheldon van der Linde and Jonathan Aberdein. This is van der Linde’s second season at the wheel of the BMW M4 DTM. Aberdein, meanwhile, is contesting his first year as a works driver for the Munich-based manufacturer. The BMW brand can look back on a long history in South Africa, while both drivers have been fans of BMW since they were young boys.

Munich. When the 2020 DTM season gets underway next weekend (1st/2nd August) at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), the grid will feature two BMW works drivers from South Africa: Sheldon van der Linde and Jonathan Aberdein. This is van der Linde’s second season at the wheel of the BMW M4 DTM. Aberdein, meanwhile, is contesting his first year as a works driver for the Munich-based manufacturer. The BMW brand can look back on a long history in South Africa, while both drivers have been fans of BMW since they were young boys.

The BMW Group’s first plant outside Germany opened in South Africa in 1973. Over the next 35 years, more than one million BMW 3 Series were produced at the site in Rosslyn, to the north of Johannesburg. At the Rosslyn BMW plant, BMW also created the BMW 530 MLE in 1976, which is widely seen as one of the early steps of BMW Motorsport. The racing version of the BMW 530 MLE won the Star Modified Racing Series three times in a row and went on to become the world’s most successful 5 series on the track. After a big investment, the Rosslyn plant was converted to produce the new BMW X3 in 2018. BMW South Africa employs over 40,000 people directly and indirectly, and is one of the country’s leading exporters of automobiles.

South Africa also plays a special role in the motorsport history of BMW: Nelson Piquet (BRA) won the World Championship title in the final Formula 1 race of the 1983 season at Kyalami, in the province of Gauteng. That was the first Formula 1 title for BMW and the first for a car with a turbo engine.

Kyalami is also the racetrack, with which van der Linde associates his first memories of BMW. He comes from a family of racing drivers and his father Shaun used to drive BMW cars on the touring car scene. “I grew up next to the race track from I think four years old, watching my Dad race in a BMW at that time”, van der Linde remembered. “That was my first memory of BMW and that was where it kick-started. BMW stayed in my mind since then and that is why I always wanted to become a BMW driver one day, because I grew up with it and I think it was clear that I wanted to make the next step at some point in my life and also be like my Dad. He was my example and I obviously wanted to do what my Dad was doing.” Van der Linde achieved that goal in the 2019 season, when he joined the squad of BMW works drivers.