Leclerc has “everything it takes to be world champion” according to his engineer

Charles Leclerc recently admitted in a press conference: “My only dream is to be champion with Ferrari, it’s what I think about from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep.” A not so utopian goal, according to his performance engineer at Ferrari. However, his team must provide him with a car that matches his goals to achieve this.

A faulty tire management at Ferrari

Charles Leclerc suffers from a variation in results between qualifying and races. The Monegasque already has 26 career pole positions, of which only 5 have been converted into victories. A poor tire management on Sundays is a point regularly highlighted by his detractors. Engineer Jock Clear defended his driver in the podcast F1 Nation: “It’s not that Charles has never been good with tires. I think as a strategy, we have not been very focused on tires.”

A strategy revisited since the arrival of Fred Vasseur at the helm of the Reds. This paid off this year in Monaco, with Leclerc’s first victory in the Principality, or at Monza with a successful one-stop strategy. What we have seen this year is the result of our focus on the car’s performance during the race and on tire management, and Charles’ learning over the past years, which has perfected his tire and race management skills, analyzes Jock Clear. So I think you see a better representation of Charles as a driver and of us as a racing team.

A biased reputation

« His reputation in qualifying has certainly consolidated over the years and people tended to tell me, two or three years ago, that he was far from being as good in races as in qualifying », said the Briton. Especially, his lack of results in races is accentuated by his good performances on fast laps. « That’s not really fair. It’s just that he is very, very good in qualifying », Clear continued.

With a better race car, Leclerc would be on track to achieve more success on Sundays, like in Monaco and in Italy this season. Tire management is not a weakness for the Monegasque, as evidenced by his victory at the Red Bull Ring in 2022. We have seen Charles deliver very good races. I remember that in 2022, in Austria, Max [Verstappen] really struggled with tire degradation, and Charles won that race with very good driving.

The necessary skills…

Jock Clear is categorical: Charles Leclerc has everything it takes to be world champion. The Monégasque’s big advantage is his qualifying pace, his engineer praising him about it. My God, I honestly think he is the best qualifier we have ever seen. It is hard to go back to Michael [Schumacher], Mika [Hakkinen], and others, but it is certain that he is the best qualifier. And his race management, if you look at Monza, is simply exceptional. When everything is in place, he delivers.

… But a car lacking competitiveness

During his first five seasons with Ferrari, Charles Leclerc was not far from competing with Max Verstappen in 2022, finishing the championship as the Dutchman’s runner-up (still 146 points behind, editor’s note). While the car seemed competitive, Leclerc suffered from his team’s lack of experience: « In 2022, did Ferrari really have a chance to win the world championship? It must be said that this was the case, because at one point, we were 40 points ahead. But we were not ready as a team and Red Bull surpassed us at the end of the year. »

Some points had been pinpointed by driver number 16, notably his team’s race strategies or missed pit stops, which Jock Clear agrees with: “It is certain that Charles would say that some things were not up to the championship level that year, but that is exactly the problem. You will not win a championship until you are all at that level.”

The engineer, however, is confident about the future. Ferrari has shown promising signs this season, and if progress continues, Charles Leclerc will have the cards in hand to realize his dream: “When we provide a car that will allow us to compete regularly for the championship, which we are about to do, I think Charles will be up to the challenge.” The arrival of Lewis Hamilton should also help Charles Leclerc achieve this goal, being an additional source of motivation for the Monegasque.