Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Monaco, 2024

2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #2: Charles Leclerc

Formula 1

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Charles Leclerc will be measured directly against the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time this year. Last year he once again out-scored Carlos Sainz Jnr, though there wasn’t much between the Ferrari team mates, and there were days Leclerc didn’t quite have the pace.

But the combined strength of their driver line-up was also the reason why Ferrari came so close to snatching the constructors’ championship with the third-quickest car over a flying lap. Leclerc therefore deserves credit for prevailing against a tougher team mate than the other drivers in our top three faced.

That was despite Leclerc’s somewhat faltering start to the year. After brake problems in Bahrain, he delivered a podium finish in Jeddah (which Sainz missed) then was beaten to victory by his team mate in Australia. Leclerc recovered from a poor qualifying effort at Suzuka to trail Sainz in fourth after being told to let him by.

He hit his stride over the following races: Fourth was the best the Ferrari deserved in China, as was third in Miami (plus second in the sprint race) and third at Imola. Then came his classy and cathartic win from pole at home in Monaco.

Charles Leclerc

Best Worst
GP start 1 (x3) 19
GP finish 1 (x3) 14
Points 356

At this point in the season Ferrari stumbled due to a flawed upgrade, and at times it felt Leclerc was over-compensating for the setback. He was fortunate to avoid a stiffer penalty for a daft incident with Lando Norris in practice at Catalunya, endured various setbacks in Austria, and gambled fruitlessly on an early switch to intermediates at Silverstone.

Once Ferrari got their car sorted, Leclerc got back into his stride and produced some excellent performances over the remaining races. From a surprise pole position at Spa he finished third, a result he repeated at Zandvoort, both behind clearly quicker cars. At Monza he stunned the McLarens, pinching victory with an adroit switch to a single-stop strategy which sent the tifosi into raptures.

Oscar Piastri had revenge at Baku where he mugged Leclerc for the lead after their pit stops, but the Ferrari driver was on the podium again. Leclerc took his final win of the year in Austin, revelling in a rare day when an SF-24 was the chassis to have.

Leclerc continued to deliver strong results over the final races, even on occasions when qualifying did not go to plan. He rebounded from ninth to fifth in Singapore and took fifth again in the rain at Interlagos.

Sainz continued to give Leclerc headaches from time to time. In Mexico, Sainz was clearly the quicker of the two drivers, and Leclerc also lost to his team mate in a close fight in Las Vegas. But he ended the season with two more podium appearances: second in Qatar, and third in Abu Dhabi after a virtuoso drive from 19th on the grid.

That wasn’t quite enough to deliver the title for Ferrari, nor for Leclerc to overhaul Lando Norris and equal his best championship result. But it was unquestionably his best season-long performance to date.

RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #2: Charles Leclerc”

  1. This year’s battle with Hamilton is one of the most intriguing line ups for a long time. Part of me thinks peak Hamilton would edge it but I wonder if we’re only now seeing peak leclerc. This guy is capable of a really high level and his lack of consistency seems to be improving (a trait Hamilton had from his first season onwards). Only time will tell where they both sit now in the pecking order – actually, I think they’ll be quite evenly matched (modern F1 seems to deliver close performance within teams, with some exceptions ie verstappen and his long list of destroyed team mates).

    1. and his lack of consistency seems to be improving (a

      Interesting way of putting it….

  2. The first two became easy after Norris’ third-place ranking.
    I’d rank him & Leclerc the other way around, but I can also see the point in this order due to the former’s constant unforced errors & failure to maximize points.

    1. Yes, I was thinking around the last few races this year that if there’s a driver that could’ve won this championship in the red bull other than verstappen, it could only be leclerc, although it’d have been a lot closer.

      1. Leclerc could have won in the Mclaren as well.

        1. Nobody would’ve won in the McLaren, not even Max.

          The Red Bull was too dominant those first few races.

          1. Ridiculous.
            Mclaren was the clear superior car in more GP’s than either Redbull, Ferrari or Mercedes.

  3. The start of the season could have been better, indeed, and the English GP was a rare total flop, but other than that it was a strong season by Leclerc. It’s a shame that Ferrari fumbled that early season upgrade, but all the more impressive that they came so close to the WCC in the end.

    The Leclerc and Hamilton line-up is very interesting!

  4. I don’t think he puts a whole weekend together often enough. The bar is sky high with Lewis and Max over the last 10 years but that is the bar and he’s not there, often enough. He may even end up in that small group of drivers ‘best never to win a WDC’ with G Villeneuve, Moss and so on

  5. I would have Norris ahead. He made more mistakes but he is just a bit faster than Leclerc and that counts for more, in my opinion. Sainz was the best second driver but he was a much bigger threat to Leclerc than Piastri was to Norris, I think to a greater extent than the difference between Sainz and Piastri.

    1. But Sainz beat Norris back to back in 2019 and 2020 in equal machinery. So as the logic goes Leclerc should probably do the same, although you could argue that Norris has improved over the years, for which I would say the others have also improved. Touché!

  6. The only obvious weak part of Leclerc’s game is that it seems he can’t read tricky changes in the track’s condition at all.
    He’s always too open to take suggestions from the pit from guys who aren’t driving in those circumstances when he is and he can make the call but rarely does. Something Sainz did for himself many times and Hamilton as well.

    Then it backfires and he looks like a fool with inadequate tyres, a lap down, and the race ruined.

    1. I agree that his weakness. He needs a good tactical supporter in the pitlane.

      1. Agree that he cannot read a race like Sainz, Russel or Alonso.

  7. One man’s opinion. Charles goes off the road too often and seems prone to mistakes whether he is under pressure or not. I would place him 5th or 6th.

    1. Lucie Králová
      31st January 2025, 15:01

      You cant be serious saying Last year he gone off the road too often. When? And what driver would you put before him?

    2. Sainz’s mistakes: clash at Miami while overtaking, crash in Canada, crash in Baku (50/50), crash in Singapore quali, crash in Interlagos quali, crash in Interlagos race.

      Leclerc’s mistakes: went wide on his Q2 lap in Abu Dhabi.

      1. And that is in a good season for sainz! Being faster and less mistake prone at the same time is a significant advantage.

  8. IMHO Leclerc deserves to be ahead of Norris, although he was beaten a little bit to often by Sainz (who on the other hand is probably one of the most underrated drivers on the grid) .
    So far in his career far Leclerc was more known for speed rather than consistency, but this year it appeared to have turned around quite significantly. His only weaknesses this year were bad calls in bad weather (him and Ferrari didn’t get it right in any of the rain affected sessions) and a couple of q3 laps he didn’t get in.
    But over the whole 24 races he didn’t have any crashes, not even a single spin. Just one front wing had to be replaced when Piastri drove over it in Austria.
    To put it in perspective: Apart from the four races from Canada onwards where Ferrari lost their way with their upgrades he finished outside the top four only twice (!). 18 finishes in P4 or better is even more than Verstappen had achieved who was praised (rightly so) for his matured driving.

    1. Wow, that’s an impressive stat, coming in the top 4 more than verstappen; I know sometimes red bull wasn’t good enough for that, but the same can be said for ferrari.

    2. 18 finishes in P4 or better is even more than Verstappen had achieved who was praised (rightly so) for his matured driving.

      Good point.

  9. Leclerc is one of the most overrated drivers on this site.

    If he is really a championship material, he’s had 7 seasons to prove it.

    Also, how many drivers won their first championship so late in their career?

    1. Mansell is a good example, it took him over a decade to win a title if I recall, and drivers didn’t race for so many seasons back then, but obviously mansell isn’t regarded as one of the greatest.

      A thing you might be forgetting if you’re asking that question though is: what occasions were there to win the title so far for leclerc?

      In 2018 he was at sauber, 2019 did well at ferrari, unfortunately he came a year late to fight for the title, 2020, 2021 ferrari weren’t title contenders either.

      2022 was at first a title contender and leclerc started well, then with that mistake in france imo the championship was lost, assuming the cars were evenly matched, but in any case ferrari wasn’t a match for red bull in the 2nd half of the season.

      2023 red bull was dominant and in 2024 ferrari was the 3rd best car and it wasn’t realistically possible to fight with the red bull or mclaren for the championship.

      In my view there’s not a single real title chance leclerc wasted so far, only 2022 if ferrari had stayed competitive, and it was against verstappen, but thing is ferrari became uncompetitive that season.

    2. Losing a championship to verstappen with similar cars isn’t a disaster either, since he’s one of the best drivers of all times.

    3. He’s 27. Raikkonen won at 28, Button at 29, Hakkinen at 30, Rosberg at 31 and there’s no need to go further than this, there are plenty of examples.

      What matters is his age, not how long he has been there.

    4. How exactly would Leclerc have won the title in 2019, or 2020, or 2021, or 2022, or 2023, or 2024?

      I do agree Leclerc needed to do better, past tense, but his 2024 season was very strong. Had the car been a bit better, he’d have been able to win more races. And then who knows. As we saw in early 2022, he’s one of the few drivers that can race Verstappen without it devolving into crashes. Not that the latter is necessarily the wrong way to go, mind, but Leclerc has his own strategy that seems to work. Usually, that is. His move in Las Vegas 2023 was pretty lacklustre.

  10. I think it shows, despite the closeness of this season – how poor everyone has been compared to Max.

    An average Hamilton performance will beat him. Problem is he’s been below average for the last three seasons.

    1. Leclerc was arguably more consistent this season than Max.

      If anything this was Max’s weakest WDC season, with a few select highlights like Brazil.

  11. Solid season, probably his most consitent one. If he continues like this then there is no way Lewis is ever going to win from him in a Ferrari. And this is probably all fine for Ferrari as long as they win a title anyway.

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