Ferrari has bounced back in 2024. Following the departures of team boss Mattia Binotto and technical director David Sanchez in late 2022 and early 2023 respectively, the team has been on a recovery mission as the car was difficult to drive and not great on tyres over a stint in a race last season.
This year has seen the Scuderia make big progress on race pace and tyre management with their car, although the raw qualifying speed seen towards the end of 2023 has not quite been there.
After taking a superb win at the Australian GP following his appendix operation, and having started the season strongly, Carlos Sainz has been put in the shade by Charles Leclerc for the majority of the campaign since Japan.
The 27-year-old won at Monaco and Monza, the two most special races of the season for him. He’s P3 in the Drivers’ Championship, 8 points clear of Oscar Piastri in the McLaren.
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Jock Clear, the Monegasque’s driver coach, detailed the improvements the team has made in race trim this year, as well as speaking about Leclerc’s year so far.
“Yeah, so to come to the question, to Charles. I mean, we all know what he’s capable of. We’ve seen that over a few years now and his reputation in qualifying has certainly been cemented over those years.
“And 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. But that said, I think this year you have seen the result really of a development on the car side and a development on the driver side.
“That is to say that you recognise that there’s no points on Saturday and all the points come on Sunday. And 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.”
Leclerc’s tyre management abilities have been on display for quite a few years already, a key area where he holds an advantage over Sainz.
Clear referenced Austria 2022 as an example of that skill. He could run longer than Max Verstappen in the first two stints, passing him three times to win the race.
“But, we’ve seen Charles do some very good races. I remember back in ’22 in Austria, where Max really struggled with tyre degradation and Charles won that race with a really good drive. It’s not that Charles historically hasn’t been good on tyres.
“I think that it’s we as a combination haven’t been focused that well on tyres. And so I think what we’ve seen this year is the result of us being more focused 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.”
Ferrari’s only win of 2023 came through Carlos Sainz at the Singapore Grand Prix. With Sainz taking pole at Monza and Leclerc P3 on the grid, many expected the Scuderia to challenge for the pole and win in Singapore due to the nature of the track.
That weekend the 30-year-old Spaniard stepped up to the plate, with Leclerc bitterly disappointed to miss out on that opportunity.
Clear says he took valuable lessons from that event.
“And I think he’s responded well to a very strong teammate. I mean, 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. And I think that sort of thing has made him focus on, ‘OK, I really need to get the job done on Sunday’.
“And that’s not to say he never thought that, but it does mean you change your focus slightly if you take it away from, ‘OK, 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 of us as a race driver, as a race car, as a race team.”
Clear was race engineer to Jacques Villeneuve when the Canadian won the F1 Drivers’ Championship title in 1997. He had a season-long with 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, a driver the British engineer went on to work with at Mercedes in the early 2010s.
He has no doubts in his mind that Leclerc is good enough to join them as a World Champion in the future.
The former Williams, Honda, Brawn and Mercedes employee believes the 7-time race winner is the best qualifier the sport has seen, at least in this century.
“Yeah, 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, he’s got that. I mean, I honestly think he’s the best qualifier we’ve seen.
“It is difficult to go back as far as Michael [Schumacher] and Mika [Häkkinen] and people like that, but he is the best qualifier for sure.”
A sensational 1-stop strategy at Monza saw Leclerc stun the McLarens to take victory and firmly establish himself as one of the elite drivers in the sport when it comes to tyre management.
Although he did not name the particular individual, Clear cited someone who said he just needs to drive the car quickly to win. He dismissed the notion it’s that simple to win in F1.
“And his race management, you look at Monza, it’s just exceptional. When everything’s lined up, he can deliver.
“It’s one of those things that I’ve often battled against, 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 f***ing 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’.”
In 2022, Leclerc came flying out of the traps, winning in Bahrain and Australia, holding a significant pace advantage over Sainz through the first half of the season when the car was at its quickest. He led Max Verstappen by 46 points in the championship after three rounds.
Mistakes from Leclerc at Imola and Paul Ricard did not help, but his championship chances were ruined by bad strategies, unreliability, and the TD that came into place after the summer break that impacted Ferrari quite badly.
Mattia Binotto’s lack of leadership was a factor as well. Although Leclerc was clearly faster than Sainz through the first part of the season, Ferrari lacked ruthlessness as team orders was rarely discussed or used, aside from Silverstone — that was until they butchered the strategy with their lead driver when the Safety Car was deployed.
Clear admitted Ferrari was not in a position to win the title as the team was simply not ready to go and take it. He referenced Mercedes and Red Bull, showing how everyone needs to be the best in the business throughout the organisation to win both championships.
“And so the only hesitation I would have is Charles hasn’t been in that situation yet. I mean, 2022 was a good example.
“And I think you would look back at ’22 and say, ‘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. And I think the way the development went, Red Bull outdeveloped us by the end of the year.
“And 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.
“And it’s the same with Max in the last three years. He’s been very good, but Red Bull have been very good.”
If Ferrari can deliver Leclerc the car he needs in both qualifying and race trim, Clear is convinced he will get the job done.
For the Brit, it’s up to the team to follow in his footsteps and deliver their best level at the most important time.
“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 championship, which I think we’re on the brink of now, Charles will deliver.”
