SUZUKA, Japan — As he crossed the finish line to take fourth place in the Japanese Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc felt a sense of relief.
The Ferrari driver had implemented an ambitious strategy in the pits, in fact a single stop after the first red flag, on one of the most degraded tracks of the year. Given that strategic decisions and tire management have been weak points for Ferrari in recent years, this was a good sign of the team’s progress.
But once again, Leclerc lagged behind his teammate, Carlos Sainz, who finished six seconds further back in P3. The result maintained Sainz’s 100% podium record in 2024, after finishing third in Bahrain and winning in Australia, and gave him a 3-0 lead over Leclerc. Sainz is just four points behind Leclerc in the drivers’ standings despite missing Jeddah due to appendicitis.
It’s a surprising change, especially in light of Ferrari’s decision to drop Sainz for 2025 in order to sign Lewis Hamilton. In a sport where comparisons between teammates are essential, it is Sainz, not Leclerc, who is leading the effort so far this year.
The margins between Sainz and Leclerc during their three seasons as teammates have always been good, but they have generally swung in Leclerc’s favor. Widely regarded as the fastest driver, Leclerc has always been seen as the leader of Ferrari’s future, having risen through the ranks of its young driver academy. But on two occasions since the start of 2023 where Red Bull has dropped the ball – Singapore in 2023 and Australia in 2024 – Sainz has been the one to take victory.
Sainz is currently in the form of his F1 career. He makes a very strong case to land a seat on a top team for 2025, helped by the fact that Ferrari now has a consistent and, above all, fast car with which he can perform. Leclerc, for his part, must understand where he is struggling in order to also be able to maximize the qualities of the SF-24.
It’s not like Leclerc got off to a bad start this year – he’s yet to finish outside the top four – but he’s always been hard on himself, focusing on the negatives to improve and use his undeniable natural speed. This meant that even when he said he felt “very happy” with his fourth place after the race in Japan, believing it was the best possible result, he was quick to look at where things had gone wrong .
“In Australia and here, race pace has not been a problem,” Leclerc said. “That’s my qualifying pace, which is something I haven’t been very used to in my career. Normally it’s pretty good on a Saturday.
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Leclerc has always been a single-lap specialist, often wringing every millisecond out of a car when it counted in Q3. He has scored almost five times as many poles (23) as wins (5), although this is partly due to Ferrari’s race pace struggles in recent years. He has outqualified his teammate in two-thirds of the races of his F1 career (67.4%) and has scored more than three times as many poles as his teammates (23-7). On the current grid, only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen hold more pole positions. Unsurprisingly, Leclerc comfortably leads the general qualifying ranking against Sainz, 44 to 25.
Yet qualifying proved Leclerc’s undoing at Suzuka. A slow first lap in Q1 forced him to use another set of soft tires to ensure he reached Q2, limiting him to just one lap in Q3, midway through the session when the track was empty. The result was 8th place on the grid, but only a tenth behind Sainz in fourth. This compromised Leclerc’s race at a circuit where track position is king, forcing him to make a single stop which was impressive to achieve but put the podium out of reach.
Also in Australia, qualifying left Leclerc behind Sainz. There he was a quarter of a second from fourth place while Sainz started on the front row. This meant that when Verstappen’s brake failed, it was Sainz, not Leclerc, who was able to capitalize.
Leclerc believes the root of the problem lies in the preparation of his tires during qualifying. “Two races in a row now, I’ve had trouble getting the tires in the right window,” he said. In qualifying, the final lap has a significant impact on the flying lap, as drivers seek to bring the tires into the optimal temperature window. Too cold, they will not provide the necessary grip; too hot and they will overheat, causing the car to slide.
These are small but important details, which denied Leclerc the little extra pace he needed. He admitted his Q3 lap in Japan was “really good” in the cockpit, “but the grip the tire offered just wasn’t there.”
“It’s because I did a bad job in the previous lap, which is very frustrating,” Leclerc added. “You finish a lap and you’re happy, but in reality you’re nowhere. I have to focus on that.
This is not something that concerns Leclerc too much. “It’s very good, very little difference,” he said. “Every time I focused on something, I improved pretty quickly. So I’m not too worried. But I have to take a step forward for Shanghai now. The fact that China, in two weeks, is a sprint weekend with two qualifying sessions gives Leclerc more time to try to understand where he is lacking that comfort.
Four races, four podiums 🏆💯
From Maranello to the track, we are proud of the whole team for the hard work this year 💪 pic.twitter.com/ArkLlam4ix
– Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 8, 2024
Team principal Fred Vasseur was quite dismissive of any concerns about Leclerc’s qualifying form, saying only that his driver was aware that Saturday at Suzuka was not good. “You can’t be happy when your teammate is P4 and you are P8,” Vasseur said, before pointing out the small gap between the two Ferrari drivers.
“It’s not a disaster whether you’re half a second or six tenths off,” Vasseur added. “He will have two qualifications in China. Keep in mind he was in the top four seven times in a row (since Austin last year). It’s good.”
China should offer Leclerc and Sainz a decent opportunity. The track features a number of long, fast corners and requires careful management of the front tires to manage front graining, factors which favored Ferrari in Australia. There are some unknowns given F1 hasn’t raced there for five years and the sprint weekend format limits preparation time, but Ferrari is expected to move closer to Red Bull .
Sainz and Leclerc pushed each other throughout their time together at Ferrari, forcing them both to improve and progress. Even in their final season as teammates, this will only continue – especially as Sainz’s form causes Leclerc to analyze one of his traditional strengths and raises inevitable questions about his decision to let him leaving for 2025.
(Main photo by Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc: Mark Thompson, Clive Mason/Getty Images)