Ferrari argues criticism of Charles Leclerc’s F1 racing pace is ‘not fair’.

Ferrari’s Jock Clear has claimed claims before this season that Charles Leclerc was not as strong in racing conditions as he was over a lap in Formula 1 were “not fair”.

Leclerc has been known as a single-lap specialist since he managed to grab the most pole positions of the entire grid in his first F1 season with Ferrari in 2019.

But while he clinched an impressive 26 pole positions, moving him up to 12th on the all-time leaderboard, Leclerc has seven wins to his name in seven seasons.

The Monegasque’s low conversion rate has led several critics to question whether he has the all-round qualities necessary to become a champion in the sport.

However, Clear refuted the notion that Leclerc had always been weaker in the races, pointing out that in the end he was a victim of his consistent ability to excel in qualifying.

“We all know what he is capable of, we have seen that for a number of years,” Clear, senior performance engineer at Ferrari, told F1.com.

“His reputation in qualifying has certainly strengthened over these years, as two or three years ago people would often say to me, ‘Yeah, but he’s nowhere near as good in the race as he was in qualifying.'”

“And you think that’s not really fair, he’s just very, very good in qualifying.”

Ferrari’s car concept helped Leclerc shine

Leclerc rejected this narrative at the Italian Grand Prix when he produced a masterful one-stop race, beating the superior McLaren cars that started from fourth place.

Clear highlighted how Ferrari’s change in vehicle concept has made the SF-24 more competitive in racing and given Leclerc the platform to maximize promising grid positions.

“This year you really saw the result of an evolution on the car side and an evolution on the driver side, realizing that there are no points on Saturday and all the points come on Sunday,” he explained.

“So I think it’s probably right that we’ve shifted our focus slightly to making the car a better race car.

“Tyre management is of course always a current topic. But we saw that Charles drove some very good races.

“I remember the year 1922 in Austria, where Max [Verstappen] really struggled with tire degradation and Charles won the race with a really good ride.

“It’s not that Charles hasn’t handled tires well in the past. I think as a combination we didn’t focus on tires that well.

“So I think what we’ve seen this year is a result of us focusing more on making the car perform really well in the race and taking care of the tires, and that Charles from previous years learned and refined his skills in tire management, but also race management.”

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