Scheckter was born in East London, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, and educated at Vincent Primary School and Selborne College. He moved to Britain in early 1971 and rapidly ascended through the ranks of motor racing. His elder brother Ian also raced in Formula One.
Scheckter made his Formula One debut at the 1972 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, driving for McLaren, where he ran as high as third place before finishing ninth. In 1973 he won the SCCA L&M Championship and raced in five further Grands Prix with McLaren.
His early career was marked by a reckless style. At the 1973 French Grand Prix, a collision with reigning World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi prompted Fittipaldi to call him "a madman" who was "a menace to himself and everybody else." At the subsequent British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Scheckter's spin triggered a major accident removing nearly a dozen cars from the race. The Grand Prix Drivers Association demanded his immediate banishment; McLaren agreed to rest him for four races as a compromise.
Scheckter's McLaren M23 carried the number zero at the 1973 Canadian and American Grands Prix, making him one of only two Formula One drivers to compete under that number — the other being Damon Hill.
During practice for the 1973 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, François Cevert — who had been due to be Scheckter's Tyrrell teammate in 1974 — was killed in an accident at the Esses. Scheckter was behind Cevert when he crashed and stopped his car to attempt aid. Witnessing the accident left an indelible mark on him and, by his own account, caused him to abandon his reckless ways.
Tyrrell gave Scheckter his first full-time Formula One drive for the 1974 season. After failing to score in the first three rounds with the 006 model, a switch to the 007 chassis brought his first points finish at the Spanish Grand Prix. He scored his maiden Formula One podium in Belgium, finishing third despite a collision with Tom Pryce. Having finished second in Monaco, Scheckter passed polesitting teammate Patrick Depailler at the start of the Swedish Grand Prix and held on to win — his maiden Formula One victory. He won again in Britain after a puncture for Niki Lauda's Ferrari handed him the lead. A brake failure in Canada and a fuel pressure problem at the final round at Watkins Glen ended his title challenge; he finished third in the championship. Eventual champion Emerson Fittipaldi held him off in fourth at that final race.
In 1975, Scheckter won his home race in South Africa in emphatic fashion, passing Carlos Pace for the lead on lap 3 and leading every lap thereafter. A series of mechanical failures and accidents across the season limited him to seventh in the standings.
For 1976, Scheckter and Depailler switched to Tyrrell's radical six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. Scheckter gave the car its maiden podium with second place in Monaco and its only victory at the Swedish Grand Prix — the only Grand Prix win achieved on six wheels. He added second places in Britain and Germany and battled James Hunt at the United States Grand Prix, ultimately finishing second. He ended the year third overall. Despite scoring points in ten of the 12 races he contested with the P34, Scheckter later described the car as "a piece of junk" and left Tyrrell after 1976.
Scheckter joined the new Walter Wolf Racing team in 1977. At its maiden race in Argentina he benefited from reliability issues for his rivals to claim victory. He went on to win in Monaco — passing John Watson off the line and leading every lap — and in Canada after an engine failure for the dominant Mario Andretti. He finished runner-up in the championship to Lauda, accumulating nine podiums on the season. Scheckter took pole for the German Grand Prix and finished second after a battle with Lauda for the lead.
The 1978 season was less competitive as the Wolf team declined. Scheckter's best result was second in Canada, after being passed by a fast Gilles Villeneuve. He finished seventh in the championship and moved to Ferrari to partner Villeneuve.
Scheckter's 1979 campaign began with a wrist sprain in a lap 1 collision, but once the Ferrari 312T4 was introduced in South Africa, Ferrari scored a 1–2 with Villeneuve leading home Scheckter. The pair repeated the result at Long Beach. In a charging drive from seventh on the grid, Scheckter claimed his first win of the season at Zolder. He then took pole for the Monaco Grand Prix and held off Clay Regazzoni to win. A popular victory at Monza clinched the World Drivers' Championship with two races remaining. He became the first World Drivers' Champion from Africa, and the last driver to win a championship for Ferrari until Michael Schumacher twenty-one years later in 2000. His career totals comprised 10 race wins, three pole positions, five fastest laps, and 33 podiums.
The 1980 title defence was a failure. Ferrari struggled with the 312T5; Scheckter managed only two points and failed to qualify for the Canadian Grand Prix. He announced his retirement, later explaining: "One or two drivers were dying every year, I'd won the championship and the magic was gone."
Upon retiring, Scheckter worked as a broadcaster for CBS, ABC, and ITV. In 1981 he won the World Superstars competition in Key Biscayne, Florida, defeating a field that included athletes such as Russ Francis and Rick Barry. In 1984 he founded a weapons simulation business, Firearms Training Systems (FATS), whose revenue eclipsed £100 million by the early 1990s; the company built firearms training simulators for military, law enforcement, and security organisations. Scheckter subsequently bought the 2,500-acre Laverstoke Park Farm near Overton, Hampshire, which he operated as a biodynamic farm producing buffalo mozzarella among other products. The farm was featured on BBC programmes including Countryfile and Escape to the Country. In 2024 the farm ceased dairy production and buffalo farming.
His son Tomas raced in the Indy Racing League and won two races there. Son Toby also became a racing driver.
In 1983 Scheckter was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2004 he was reunited with his championship-winning Ferrari at the South African two-seater F1x2 Charity Grand Prix at Kyalami. In 2024 he was honoured among 100 remarkable Jewish South Africans at the South African Jewish Board of Deputies' 120th anniversary gala dinner.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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