Ferrari's Charles Leclerc Is Ready To Win A World Title In 2022

In his fourth F1 season, Charles Leclerc over the years has proven that he is amongst the three best drivers in the sport alongside 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. In his first season, he outperformed Sebastian Vettel and then he repeated the feat to a greater degree in 2020. This year is evenly matched with Carlos Sainz and would've been perhaps ahead of him by a great margin had it not been for his twin retirements. Ferrari driver coach Jock Clear believes that the Monegasque is ready to win the world title in 2022 if given a championship-winning car something that Ferrari has been building towards in the last two years with a rejigging of the team and new infrastructure projects including a new simulator and wind tunnel.  

Charles Leclerc Ferrari Azerbaijan GP F1 2021

"My initial reaction is, 'God yes, he is absolutely ready'," Clear told the Beyond The Grid podcast when asked if Leclerc is ready to fight for the championship.

"You have to balance that with [the fact] there is no substitute for actually being in that position where, 'Oh my God, I could win a championship here'. That is a different level of pressure," he added. 

"And as such if he is put into a position where he can challenge for a championship, it is going to be against Max, it is going to be against Lewis, it is going to be tough, you are going to slip up, make a mistake, drop some points. But will he cope with that? Yes he absolutely can cope with that. He's not going to crumble when he drops it in qualifying and has to start from P13 or whatever. He'll swallow it, deal with it and the next race come back and put it on pole," Clear explained how exceptional a driver is Leclerc. 

Leclerc was out qualified by his teammate and came P7

In 2019, Ferrari chose to replace Kimi Raikkonen with Leclerc who immediately outperformed Vettel. Leclerc could've won a couple of more races had it not been for a retirement and some intra team politics at Ferrari which handed Vettel the win over his junior teammate. 

Leclerc rose to F1 as a Ferrari Driver Academy graduate and then won the F2 world title in 2017 and was placed in the Sauber in 2108 which has been a long standing Ferrari engine supply partner. In late 2019, Leclerc was handed a 5 year deal with the team something which even the great Michael Schumacher wasn't offered, that's how much Ferrari believes in his talent.