Charles Leclerc’s defeat in the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix spurred him to raise his game on race day, Ferrari’s performance engineer Jock Clear believes.
His team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr won the race from pole position, inflicting the only defeat Red Bull suffered all season. Clear said losing that race had a profound effect on Leclerc.“I think he’s responded well to [having] a very strong team mate,” Clear told the official F1 channel. “We’ve long talked about the qualities of Carlos, and the fact is Carlos probably doesn’t quite have that edge of pace that Charles can show in qualifying.
“But you look at Singapore last year and that really hit home to Charles, that was a race that Charles you would have said would have gone there as a favourite to win. Singapore, he often goes there with a lot of confidence, and of course for Carlos to nick that one under his nose really hurt.”
Although Sainz beat Leclerc to pole position on that occasion, Clear said the race showed Leclerc he needs to improve his performance over a grand prix distance.
“That sort of thing has made him focus on ‘okay, I really need to get the job done on Sunday’. That’s not to say he never thought that, but it does mean you change your focus slightly.
“If you take it away from ‘okay, we just need to get the best qualifying car we can and get a qualifying lap and then it’ll all happen on a Sunday’. So I think you’re just seeing a better representation of Charles and all of us as a race driver, as a race car, as a race team.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Despite having taken pole position on 26 occasions, Leclerc has won far fewer races, with seven grand prix victories to his name. However Clear denied his driver is much weaker over a race distance than he is in qualifying.
“We all know what he’s capable of, we’ve seen that over a few years now,” he said. “His reputation in qualifying has certainly been cemented over those years, in so much as people tended to say to me two years ago, three years ago ‘yeah, but he’s nowhere near as good in the race as he is in qualifying’. And you think, well, that’s not really fair, it’s just that he’s very, very good at qualifying.”
Leclerc has won twice this year, including at Monza, where he started fourth. This is the lowest position he has ever won a race from and only the second time he has taken victory without starting from pole position.
Clear said the result was a consequence of Ferrari putting more effort into their race performance.
“This year you have seen the result, really, of a development on the car side and a development on the driver side, that you recognise that there’s no points on Saturday and all the points come on Sunday. Therefore I think it’s probably true that we’ve shifted our focus slightly to making the car a better race car.
“Tyre management is of course always a hot topic. But we’ve seen Charles do some very good races. I remember back in ’22 in Austria, where Max [Verstappen] really struggled with tyre degradation and Charles won that race with a really good drive.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“It’s not that Charles historically hasn’t been good on tyres, I think that it’s we as a combination haven’t been focussed that well on tyres. And so I think what we’ve seen this year is the result of us being more focussed on getting the car working really well in the race and looking after those tyres and Charles learning from previous years and honing those skills of tyre management, but also race management.”
Leclerc’s recent performances have vindicated Ferrari’s belief in the driver they promoted from Sauber in 2019, said Clear.
“Absolutely, he’s got what it takes to be a world champion. I’ve said that from 2018 – obviously we work with him in the academy. We’ve seen all the right things at all the right stages.
“He’s got the qualifying pace. My God, I honestly think he’s the best qualifier we’ve seen. It’s difficult to go back as far as Michael and Mika and people like that, but he is the best qualifier, for sure.
“And his race management, you look at Monza, it’s just exceptional. When everything is lined up, he can deliver. It’s one of those things that I’ve often battled – mentioning no names, but if I give you the words, you’ll know exactly whose mouth they came from – there was a lot of ‘we pay him a lot of money, he just needs to drive the ‘king car’. And you’re like, if you think that’s what it’s all about, you’re missing something, because there’s a whole lot of stuff that needs to go on to get all those ducks lined up.”
The closest Leclerc has come to winning the world championship was in 2022, when he led the standings five rounds in but ended the year 146 points behind Verstappen. Clear said the team wasn’t ready to win the championship at the time.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“Was that genuinely a chance for Ferrari to win a world championship? You have to say yes it was, because at one point we were 40 points ahead in the drivers’ championship and we were in a position to beat Max at a lot of circuits. So we weren’t ready as a team.
“I think the way the development went, Red Bull out-developed us by the end of the year. Certainly the ducks didn’t all line up, but certainly there were things that Charles would say were not at championship level during that year throughout what we did.
“But that is exactly the point. You’re not going to win a championship until all of you are at that level. It’s unfair to say that Mercedes only won all those championships because they had the best car. They had the best everything.
“It’s the same with Max in the last three years: He’s been very good but Red Bull have been very good. So when Charles is going to perform at that level, we need to perform at that level with him.
“And my point when I say confidently ‘yes he is’, when we’re all at that level, I know he will perform at that level. I know that he can do what’s required when all of us are punching at that weight. So when we are in a position and we as a team deliver a car consistently to challenge for a championship, which I think we’re on the brink of now, Charles will deliver.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
- Albon says his car won’t be fixed in time to start Brazilian Grand Prix
- Pole winner Norris admits he was struggling with car after avoiding Q1 exit
- Norris on pole, Verstappen 17th after penalty after crash-strewn Sunday qualifying
- 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix grid
- Verstappen criticises race director’s “b*******” red flag call after Q2 elimination
José Lopes da Silva
7th October 2024, 13:50
Many, many thanks for these kind of articles and hindsights.
Leclerc has been showing that he was no Alesi but he was no Schumacher either. My main take about him throughout these years – and this is already his 6th Ferrari season; for today’s standards it’s not much, but in the past it would be a lot – is that he did not seem to be 100% focused if the car wasn’t heading either for a win of for the title. And every team needs that kind of leadership. Even if it’s not a “backroom schumacheresque” leadership, but at least an “on track” one. And yes, he seems a little more solid recently.
Dane
8th October 2024, 21:43
Raikkonen wasn’t Schumacher-esque either but he still got the job done. I think Leclerc is at least at Kimi’s level as a driver. If Ferrari can deliver then so will Charles!
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
7th October 2024, 14:15
Most of the article makes sense, but this one comment and subsequently the title do not. Singapore is a race where qualifying is extremely important and almost always defines your race result rather than race pace, and that was proven true in 2023. Sainz won the race because he was on pole, while Leclerc was forced to play second fiddle and not even maximise his own result because he wasn’t on pole. It would make no sense for this to be a moment where Lerclerc thought “oh, i need to focus on race pace because that’s where the points are awarded.” There are however many occasions where that would have been the case, as are outlined in other parts of the interview.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th October 2024, 14:38
Yes, agree with this, I also thought it was a bad example to give about the importance of race pace, monza this year is a better example, as mentioned in the article.