Sheldon van der Linde

Sheldon van der Linde (born 13 May 1999), also known by his initials SVDL, is a South African motor racing driver currently employed by BMW as a factory driver. He has been competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters since 2019, winning his maiden title in 2022. He is the younger brother of Kelvin van der Linde.

Career Van der Linde began his motorsport career at the age of six, racing karts in his native South Africa. He would go on to win multiple national titles before making the transition to racing cars in 2014. In his first season of car racing, van der Linde won the South Africa Polo Cup Championship in dominant fashion. He would go on to win the Volkswagen Cup South Africa the following year.

For 2016, van der Linde raced in the Audi Sport TT Cup, one of the support categories of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. He would make an immediate impact, winning both races of the opening round at the Hockenheimring. Scoring multiple podiums, as well as two wins, secured van der Linde fourth in his debut season. Thereafter, he has competed in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, ADAC GT Masters, and both Blancpain GT Series'.

DTM Van der Linde making his debut in the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

2019 In January 2019, it was announced that van der Linde would be driving for BMW Team RBM in the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season; thereby making him the first South African driver to compete in the series. He scored a pole position at Zolder and finished 13th in the standings, 19 points behind teammate Joel Eriksson.

2020

Van der Linde remained with RBM for the 2020 season, this time alongside Philipp Eng. His season started out strongly, scoring his first DTM podium at the second round of the campaign at the Lausitzring. The South African followed that up by winning race 2 at Assen, a race in which he scored the fastest lap as well. A consistent season helped van der Linde to sixth in the championship, finishing as the second-highest BMW driver, narrowly missing out to Timo Glock.

2021 For 2021, the first DTM season to be run under Group GT3 regulations, van der Linde switched over to partner Glock at ROWE Racing as the team fielded a pair of BMW M6 GT3 cars in what proved to be their only season in the series. In the first seven races, he recorded five finishes in the top-ten. After a fourth-place finish in the second race of the first round at Monza, he started from pole position and led 21 laps in the first race of the second round at the Lausitzring, but eventually received a five-second time penalty for a pit-stop infringement and finished in ninth place. After experiencing his first retirement of the season in the second race of the fourth round at the Nürburgring, he also retired from both races of the next round at the Red Bull Ring. He finished sixth in the first race of the sixth round at Assen, before experiencing four consecutive retirements. His campaign ended with an eleventh-place finish in the drivers' standings, with the fourth-place finish at Monza remaining his best race result.

2022

For the 2022 season, van der Linde was chosen to partner Philipp Eng at Schubert Motorsport as the team entered the DTM for the first time by fielding a pair of BMW M4 GT3 cars. In the second round of the season at the Lausitzring, he won both races. He scored his third victory of the season in the first race of the fifth round at the Nürburgring, finishing ahead of his brother, Kelvin. It was the first time that two brothers finished 1–2 in a DTM race. Going into the final round at the Hockenheimring, van der Linde was 11 points ahead of Mercedes driver Lucas Auer in the drivers' standings. In the Saturday race, which Auer won, van der Linde finished second after starting from 16th due to a ten-place grid penalty. He went into the Sunday race two points ahead of Auer in the drivers' standings, eventually winning his maiden title with a third-place finish, which put him 11 points ahead of Auer, who finished the race in seventh, in the final drivers' standings.

Sports car racing

On 2 February 2025, van der Linde scored the biggest win of his racing career to date when he took out the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour at the famous Mount Panorama Circuit in Australia. Driving for Belgian outfit Team WRT and driving a BMW M4 GT3, he teamed with Brazilian driver Augusto Farfus and his older brother Kelvin to take a 10-second win over their WRT teammates Raffaele Marciello, Charles Weerts and former multiple MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi.

The win made the van der Linde's just the third set of brothers to win a major race together at Bathurst after Geoghegan's Leo and "Pete" (Ian) who won the 1962 Bathurst Six Hour Classic together, and the Brabham brothers Geoff and David who had won the 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 Super Touring car race together.

After missing the opening round of the 2026 WEC season, van der Linde became the first South African to win a FIA World Endurance Championship race overall, taking victory at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with Robin Frijns and René Rast.

Formula E Van der Linde served as the reserve driver for the BMW i Andretti Motorsport during the 2020–21 Formula E season.

In April 2023, van der Linde made his debut in a Formula E car during the Berlin rookie test with Jaguar TCS Racing. He would later partake in the rookie test with the team in Rome. van der Linde returned with Jaguar and participated in the rookie free practice session in Misano and the Berlin rookie test.

Racing record

Career summary Season still in progress.

Complete ADAC GT Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Season still in progress.

Complete GT World Challenge Europe results GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos. Points 2018 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Silver ZOL1 ZOL2 BRH1 BRH2 MIS1 MIS2 HUN1 HUN2 NÜR1 NÜR2 10th 22.5

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rank Points 2019 BMW Team RBM BMW M4 Turbo DTM HOC1 HOC2 ZOL1 ZOL2 MIS1 MIS2 NOR1 NOR2 ASS1 ASS2 BRH1 BRH2 LAU1 LAU2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HOC1 HOC2 13th 42 2020 BMW Team RBM BMW M4 Turbo DTM SPA1 SPA2 LAU1 LAU2 LAU1 LAU2 ASS1 ASS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 ZOL1 ZOL2 ZOL1 ZOL2 HOC1 HOC2 6th 108 2021 ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3 MNZ1 MNZ2 LAU1 LAU2 ZOL1 ZOL2 NÜR1 NÜR2 RBR1 RBR2 ASS1 ASS2 HOC1 HOC2 NOR1 NOR2 11th 55 2022 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 ALG1 ALG2 LAU1 LAU2 IMO1 IMO2 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SPA1 SPA2 RBR1 RBR2 HOC1 HOC2 1st 164 2023 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 OSC1 OSC2 ZAN1 ZAN2 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 LAU1 LAU2 SAC1 SAC2 RBR1 RBR2 HOC1 HOC2 4th 151 2024 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 OSC1 OSC2 LAU1 LAU2 ZAN1 ZAN2 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SAC1 SAC2 RBR1 RBR2 HOC1 HOC2 6th 142Sources:

24 Hours of Daytona results

Complete 24 Hours of Spa results

24 Hours of Nürburgring results

12 Hours of Sebring results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2018 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Christopher Mies Alessio Picariello Audi R8 LMS GTD 321 20th 4th 2023 BMW M Team RLL Connor De Phillippi Nick Yelloly BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP 3222nd2nd 2025 BMW M Team RLL Robin Frijns Marco Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP 353 5th 5th

Bathurst 12 Hour results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2023 Team WRT Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts BMW M4 GT3 Pro 323 4th 4th 2024 Team WRT Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts BMW M4 GT3 Pro 120 DNF DNF 2025 Team WRT Kelvin van der Linde Augusto Farfus BMW M4 GT3 Pro 306 1st 1st