Jock Clear, Ferrari’s performance engineer, says Charles Leclerc’s failure in the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix inspired him to improve his race day performance.
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His teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. won the race from pole position, inflicting Red Bull’s only defeat of the season. Clear stated that losing the race had a significant impact on Leclerc.
“I think he’s responded well to [having] a very strong teammate,” Clear said on the official F1 channel. “We’ve long discussed Carlos’s capabilities, and the truth is that Carlos arguably lacks the edge of pace that Charles demonstrates in qualifying.
“But you look at Singapore last year, and it really hammered home for Charles. it was a race.
That Charles, you would have predicted, would have gone there as the favourite to win. Singapore, he generally travels there with a lot of confidence, and Carlos nicking that one beneath his nose hurt a lot.” Although Sainz took pole on that occasion, Clear stated that the race demonstrated Leclerc’s need to enhance his performance across a grand prix distance.
“That sort of thing has caused him to focus on ‘well, I really need to get the job done on Sunday’. That is not to say he never considered it, but it does imply you shift your perspective significantly.
“If you pull it away from ‘well, we simply need to get the best qualifying car and get a qualifying lap, and then everything will happen on Sunday. So I believe you’re seeing a more accurate portrayal of Charles and all of us as race drivers, race cars, and race teams. Despite taking pole position 26 times, Leclerc has only seven grand prix triumphs to his name. However, Clear denied that his driver is significantly worse over the 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 went on. “His reputation for qualifying has undoubtedly been solidified over those
Years, in the sense that people used to remark to me two or three years ago, ‘Yeah, but he’s nowhere near as good in the race as he is in qualifying. And you think, “That’s not fair; he’s just very good at qualifying.”
Leclerc has won twice this year, including in Monza, when he started fourth. This is the lowest position he has ever won a race from, and only the second time he has won without starting from the pole position.
Clear stated that the result was due to Ferrari putting more effort into their race performance.
“This year, you’ve seen the outcome of a development on the car side and a development on the driver side, in that you recognize that there are no points on Saturday and all points come on Sunday. As a result, I believe we have changed our attention slightly toward making the car a better race car.
“Tyre management is, of course, a popular topic. But we’ve seen Charles run some excellent races. I recall Max [Verstappen] struggling with tire deterioration in Austria in ’22, and Charles winning that race with a great driving. “It’s not that Charles hasn’t been brilliant at tyres in the past; I believe we haven’t been very focused on tyres as a team. And so I believe what we’ve seen this year is the product of us being more focused on getting the vehicle to work really well in the race and looking after those tyres, and Charles learning from prior years and improving those tyre management skills, as well as race management.” According to Clear, Leclerc’s previous results have vindicated Ferrari’s conviction in the driver they promoted from Sauber in 2019.
“Yes, he has what it takes to be a world champion. I’ve mentioned that since 2018; clearly, we work with him in the academy. We’ve witnessed all of the appropriate events at all stages.
“He has the qualifying pace. My God, I believe he’s the best qualifier we’ve seen. It’s impossible to go back as far as Michael, Mika, and others, but he is without a doubt the finest qualified candidate.
“And his race management, you look at Monza, it’s simply outstanding. Once everything is in order, he
Can deliver. It’s one of those things that I’ve often struggled with – I won’t name names, but if I give you the words, you’ll know precisely who said them – there was a lot of ‘we pay him a lot of money, he just needs to drive the ‘royal car’. And you’re like, “If you think that’s what it’s all about, you’re missing out, because there’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen to get all those ducks lined up.”
The closest Leclerc came to winning the world championship was in 2022, when he led the standings after five rounds but finished 146 points behind Verstappen. Clear stated that the team wasn’t prepared to win the tournament at the time. “Was that really a chance for Ferrari to win the world championship? You have to answer yes, since at one point we were 40 points ahead of Max in the drivers’ championship and in a position to beat him at a number of tracks. So we weren’t prepared as a team.”I believe that the way the development progressed, Red Bull out-developed us at the end of the year. Certainly, the ducks did not all line up, but there were some aspects of what we accomplished that Charles would describe as lacking championship-level performance.
“But that is precisely the purpose. You won’t win a championship unless you all reach that level. It is inaccurate to claim that Mercedes won all of those titles solely because they had the best car. They had the finest of everything.
“It’s been the same with Max for the previous three years: he’s been really good, but so has Red Bull. So if Charles is going to perform at that level, we must perform at that level with him. “And my point is that when we’re all at that level, I know he’ll perform there as well. I know he can do it when we’re all punching at the same weight. So when we are in a situation where we can regularly provide a car to fight for a championship, which I believe we are on the verge of doing, Charles will deliver.”
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