Jock Clear says that Ferrari will not ask Charles Leclerc to calm down with his idea of pushing, but he notes in Miami he got ahead of himself.
After his FP2 and qualifying crash in Miami to go with some of the other incidents in 2023 and over the years, Ferrari performance engineer Clear is clear that they will not ask Leclerc to calm down or tone down his approach in terms of pushing on.
Considering that Ferrari is behind on pace against Red Bull and even to Mercedes and Aston Martin to a certain extent, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz try to go the extra mile during race weekends in order to position themselves well for the races.
In doing so, they end up binning the car at certain times. It has often happened with Leclerc, where he crashed not only in Baku but also in Miami. Considering the amount of mistakes he has made, several have questioned the approach of the Monegasque.
While Leclerc has noted that he is not to change anything, Ferrari align with him as well but Clear does agree that the Monegasque did a bit too much in Miami qualifying. “I think in some ways, this maybe is a reflection of his mindset, when he is up against a car that is demonstrably quicker than him,” he said to media.
“It’s a sort of ‘I’m just going to have to make the difference myself’ which, of course, physics ultimately catches you out. And we’re not going to say to him ‘Look, calm down, Charles’ because over the course of a year, his qualifying is outstanding. And that puts him in a very strong position for a lot of races, as it did in Baku, clearly.
“But yeah, the car was relatively quiet nice in Miami, if you see what I mean. It’s not it’s not been a car they had real struggles with that weekend. And I think he smelled the opportunity for another pole position, to be honest, and maybe just got a bit ahead of himself,” summed up Clear.
This going to extra mile is mostly down to the pace of Red Bull who everyone is catching. Their pace is spread out which gives them the edge. Clear, though, pins it on the straightline especially with the DRS open. Ferrari are not only studying that, but also the suspension part which is aiding them in tyre management.
“Well, I mean, that we’re looking at the same overlays that you probably are, it’s all available nowadays,” said Clear. “And they are very, very quick along the straights, especially when the DRS is open. And again, we have to look at that, see what we can do better to shed that drag, because of course, that’s free lap time.
“The driver doesn’t have to use too much skill to get from Turn 7 to Turn 11 in Miami as fast as possible. And that’s clearly an area where they were very quick. In terms of suspension, I have no idea. It would take a cleverer man and I to look at onboard videos and work out what they’re doing with anti-squat and anti-dive to be honest.”
Here’s F1 drivers and team bosses on Miami intro: https://formularapida.net/f1-drivers-and-team-bosses-opine-on-miami-gp-intro-ceremony/
Here’s Charles Leclerc on not getting the confidence with Ferrari car
Here’s Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz on inconsistent Ferrari