South Africa may not be hosting a race yet but we have contributions to the current roaster of talents. We’ve discussed the journey of Shau Mafuna but, Shau can’t be the only South African in the current era of formula 1 right? We took a little google tour looking for notable names of South Africans in Formula 1 and found quite a few South Africans occupying notable positions. Rory Byrne, Keanan van Dyk, Anthony Abbot are all engineers while Alan van der Merwe is an f1 safety car driver. SA also produced the FIA Formula One World Championship Commissioner Dieter Rencken. Here’s a little look at the commissioner.
Seasoned South African-born motorsport journalist Dieter Rencken has been appointed FIA Formula One World Championship Commissioner in the Office of the FIA President, in addition to his duties as Motorsport Adviser to the President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem. According to racingnews365 He qualified as engineer via Toyota SA and switched to motorsport journalism after holding various senior management positions in the wider motor industry. Dieter Rencken first held full FIA Formula 1 media accreditation in 2000, since then he has attended over 350 grand prix and reported on categories such as WRC, WEC, MotoGP, WRX and Formula E. He is the reporter that first broke the news of Oscar Piastri’s shock move to McLaren, Haas F1’s formation, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s transfer to Toro Rosso and Lawrence Stroll’s acquisition of Force India (Racing Point) and his subsequent take-over of Aston Martin.
Dieter was the 2021 recipient of the Genesis Automotive Technology Award from the Guild of Motoring Writers. He continues his role as the Editorial Director at RacingNews365.com and continues to contribute to multiple racing news sites.