Neville Lederle (25 September 1938 – 17 May 2019) was a

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. He participated in two World Championship

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

Grands Prix, scoring a single championship point.

Early life

Lederle was born in

Theunissen Theunissen is a small town that has the only wine estate, the Theunissen Wine Farm, in the Free State province of South Africa. It is located about 95 kilometers northeast of Bloemfontein and about 45 kilometers south of Welkom Welkom ( ...

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

and schooled at St Andrews in Bloemfontein.

Formula One career

Starting out in Formula One with his

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

-engined

Lotus 18 The Lotus 18 was a race car designed by Colin Chapman for use by Lotus in Formula One, Formula Two, and Formula Junior, which was used from 1960 until 1966 in F1. Overview Lotus 18 was the first mid-engined car built by Lotus and was a mark ...

in 1961, he retired from the

Rand Grand Prix The Rand Grand Prix was a auto racing, motor race held at various circuits in South Africa. The first event took place in 1937 but it was not held regularly until the 1960s, when it was run to Formula One rules and formed part of the non-champion ...

and only managed 14th in the Cape Grand Prix in January 1962. Later that year, however, he acquired a

Lotus 21 The Lotus 21 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman. It was a mid-engined design using a tubular spaceframe structure skinned with fibreglass panels, of a more advanced build than seen in the Lotus 18. Powered by the 1.5-litre C ...

with a

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

engine and came fifth in the

1962 Rand Grand Prix The 5th Rand Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 15 December 1962 at Kyalami, South Africa. The race was run over 50 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Jim Clark, who led from start to finish in his Team ...

and fourth in the

Natal Grand Prix NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

. This form led him to a sixth place in the World Championship

South African Grand Prix The South African Grand Prix was first run as a Grand Prix motor racing handicap race in 1934 at the Prince George Circuit at East London, South Africa, East London, Cape Province. It drew top drivers from Europe including Bernd Rosemeyer, Ri ...

and thus a World Championship point in his first event at that level. In 1963 Lederle broke a leg in practice for the Rand 9 Hours sports car race and missed a large part of the 1964 season whilst recovering. He returned with his Lotus 21 for the end-of-season 1964 Rand Grand Prix where he finished 10th, but he narrowly failed to qualify for January's

1965 South African Grand Prix The 1965 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at East London on 1 January 1965. While originally scheduled to be the last race of the 1964 season, it was moved up by a week and thus became race 1 of 10 in the 1965 Formula ...

. After this disappointment, Lederle effectively retired from racing to concentrate on business interests, which included a

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

dealership.

Death

Lederle died at his home in

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

on 17 May 2019.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key)

Non-Championship

( key)

References

* "The Grand Prix Who's Who", Steve Small, 1995. * "The Formula One Record Book", John Thompson, 1974.

External links

F1 Rejects interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lederle, Neville 1938 births 2019 deaths People from Masilonyana Local Municipality South African racing drivers South African Formula One drivers White South African people Scuderia Scribante Formula One drivers