Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #2 Charles Leclerc

If 2024 was a yr when Ferrari made it clear precisely how a lot Charles Leclerc means to the staff – signing him to a brand new contract and leaving Carlos Sainz uncovered when Lewis Hamilton grew to become obtainable – then he too confirmed how a lot the Prancing Horse means to him.

The frustration at Ferrari of dropping the constructors’ battle to McLaren in Abu Dhabi on a day when Leclerc had risen from 19th on the grid to third – certainly considered one of his most spectacular F1 drives – was etched on his face within the paddock post-race.

Like Lando Norris, Leclerc might have been champion this time period however for his staff not offering him with the perfect automotive bundle. In spite of everything, from the summer time break onwards he scored probably the most factors of the entire pack (179 – 4 greater than Norris and 19 over Max Verstappen).

Leclerc’s fundamental downside was that Ferrari went off the boil in automotive efficiency phrases with its flooring replace launched at June’s Spanish GP, which robbed him of confidence within the quickest corners. However at Spa, within the moist or dry, Leclerc was critically spectacular. He scored good wins at Monza and Austin as soon as the season was going once more and Ferrari’s restoration was on.

Leclerc ended his Monaco hoodoo and likewise delivered assertion victories at Monza and COTA throughout an excellent yr

Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photos

In the beginning of the yr, Leclerc had surprisingly been the weaker in Ferrari’s line-up. His struggles with tyre preparation in qualifying coincided with the bombshell to Sainz of his dropping for 2025, fuelling the Spaniard to new heights of efficiency. However Leclerc rallied and Sainz’s run proved unsustainable.

Leclerc’s 33-lap stint on the Italian GP the place each lap was inside a second earned headlines in his improbable win there, but it surely shouldn’t be forgotten that he was additionally nice on one other one-stopper again in China. This tyre administration factor of his recreation is commonly missed, round all that qualifying wildness.

There was much less of this on show total in 2024, though his Bahrain, Australia, Singapore, Mexico and Abu Dhabi qualifying errors have been expensive. Austria was a messy one total and at Imola and in Mexico he had race offs too. That Las Vegas radio outburst was bizarre. However maybe his largest mistake was assuming he’d get the lead again in Baku when Oscar Piastri attacked.

In a yr the place he deserved the plaudits for his good racecraft, his qualifying file towards Sainz (17-12 head-to-head file from all periods, with a median benefit of 0.115s, the closest between any team-mates this yr) and the competitors he had inside his personal staff boosts his rating.

And there was stunning emotion too – on show most when he lastly gained at residence in Monaco.

How good Leclerc was in 2024, within the Ferrari star’s personal phrases

One of many key the reason why Leclerc acquired the nod over Norris for second place on this rating was his energy in wheel-to-wheel fight this season: the one driver to supply Verstappen a battle in the course of the Dutchman’s rise at Interlagos; his good, swooping cross on George Russell at Flip 1 in China; his holding off of Piastri’s quicker McLaren at Zandvoort and in Qatar.

Storming across the exterior of Russell at China’s Flip 1 underlined Leclerc’s racecraft energy

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photos

Forward of the Abu Dhabi season finale, Autosport requested Leclerc what all that meant to him, in addition to to evaluate his 2024 season. Right here’s his reply in full.

CL: I all the time get pleasure from wheel-to-wheel. It’s all the time a really thrilling second of the weekend the place you’ve acquired to adapt to totally different drivers. In fact, you get to know drivers and also you adapt your driving type to it as properly and clearly when tons is at stake, it’s the place you possibly can take extra threat and that’s the place I get pleasure from it probably the most.

For instance, with our automotive [in Qatar, with pressure on in the constructors’ championship] clearly there was a bit extra threat taken simply because I knew that it was crucial for us to be taking as many factors as potential to McLaren. So, there’s additionally this a part of the story. When you find yourself preventing with one clear goal, you possibly can afford to be a bit extra on the aggressive aspect, which I get pleasure from.

Then wanting again on the season, I believe it’s been very strong from the entire staff. I believe there’s the efficiency of the automotive, which we weren’t on the stage the place we wished to be for the primary half of the season. The second half, we have been extra in keeping with McLaren and Crimson Bull.

However as a driver, I really feel like wanting again at this yr, there hasn’t been actually any missed alternatives, which within the different years, once I look again, there was all the time one or two races the place I wished to do issues that weren’t potential. And, by that, it was biting me. That might imply that I’d get zero factors in a weekend the place I might have gotten eight or 10.

Even when that’s not a lot, on the finish while you add this stuff up it makes a distinction and on a yr like this, I don’t assume I’ve left any possibilities behind. That’s the reason I’m happy with the season.

Though dissatisfied as Ferrari got here up quick within the producers’ battle, Leclerc produced a number of moments of particular person brilliance

Photograph by: Ferrari