Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur is refusing to compare Charles Leclerc to any driver when it comes to one lap performance, with the Frenchman having been asked if the Monegasque is the best driver when it comes to qualifying.
Leclerc was incredibly fast when it came to qualifying last season, with the 25-year-old having started on pole nine times.
By claiming pole nine times in 2022, he meant he started at the front in 41-percent of the races last season, highlighting his superiority over one lap.
Comparing this to Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard only claimed three pole positions last season, six fewer than his team-mate.
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Whilst neither Ferrari driver managed to turn their pole positions into several victories, Leclerc was the stronger of the two when it came to race day last season as well.
Leclerc won three races in 2022, whilst Sainz claimed victory at only the British Grand Prix.
With all the stats pointing in Leclerc’s favour, it does raise the question of why he wasn’t given preferential treatment in the second half of the season.
Former boss Mattia Binotto was adamant on giving the drivers equal status, something that arguably cost them further victories.
This approach is going to be kept by Vasseur at least for the start of the forthcoming season, with the former Alfa Romeo boss hailing it as a “mistake” to label his drivers to anybody.
“It would be a mistake to try to start to do a comparison with the others on this point,” the new Ferrari boss said.
“We have Charles and I don’t want to make any comparison with Carlos or with drivers.”
With both drivers having claimed more pole positions than they did victories, there are clearly some areas that need to be addressed at the start of the season.
Looking ahead to the first round in Bahrain, Vasseur wants his drivers to work with the team to “end their weaknesses”, as well as work with each other to “do a better job”.
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“We have Charles and Carlos,” the Frenchman explained.
“We have to work [with] them to try to end their weaknesses, if they have [any], and to understand where they are performing [well], where they are performing more than their teammate and to try just to do a better job together.
“I don’t want to make any comparisons.”