'That really hurt him' – Jock Clear on the Sainz performance that shocked Leclerc

Charles Leclerc’s driver coach Jock Clear has cited the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix as a turning point for the Monegasque, with his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz claiming an impressive victory at a race that Leclerc arrived at with “a lot of confidence”.

During a campaign that saw Red Bull win 21 out of 22 races with the dominant RB19, Sainz was the only driver outside of the Milton Keynes outfit to stand on the top step of the podium in 2023. The Spaniard mastered his strategy in hot and humid conditions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit to seal his second win in F1.

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Leclerc, meanwhile, started from P3 on the grid but crossed the line in fourth place. Reflecting back on that weekend during an appearance on the F1 Nation podcast, Clear suggested that the 26-year-old took some good learnings from the disappointment of losing out to Sainz.

“I think he's responded well to a very strong team mate,” said Clear. “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 would have gone there as a favourite to win. He often goes there with a lot of confidence, and for Carlos to nick that one under his nose really hurt. I think that sort of thing has made him focus on: ‘okay, I really need to get the job done on Sunday.’

“That's not to say he never thought that, but it does mean you change your focus slightly, if you take it away from, ‘okay, 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.’

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“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.”

As Clear referenced, Leclerc has often held a reputation for being particularly strong in qualifying but the Briton believes that he has improved in terms of his race management during the 2024 season.

“People tended to say to me two or three years ago, ‘yeah but he’s nowhere near as good in the race as he is in qualifying’,” Clear – who is also Head of the Ferrari Driver Academy – explained. “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 of a development on the car side and a development on the driver side. I think it's probably true that we've shifted our focus slightly to making the car a better race car.

“Tyre management is always a hot topic. It's not that Charles historically hasn't been good on tyres. I think that we, as a combination, haven't been focused that well on tyres.

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“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.”

Leclerc currently sits in third place of the drivers’ championship with six races remaining, the same position that Ferrari hold in the constructors’ standings.