Leclerc is ready for a title fight with Hamilton: 'He will not crumble'

Mental strength of Leclerc

During the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Clear is asked what Leclerc's strongest point is: "Mental strength. Certainly with Charles. He is quite astoundingly strong, mentally. It’s easy to forget to come in as a Ferrari as a official Ferrari driver at that age. That’s gotta be intimidating, my word that’s gotta be intimidating. It was intimidating for Sebastian Vettel when he got here with four world championships."

Leclerc came in as one of the youngest drivers ever to sit in a Ferrari, with no titles, no wins and without having scored even a podium finish with one year of Formula One experience. "And how he’s carried himself, pretty much from day one. Yes he is super quick. We’ve seen how good of a qualifier he is. I think qualifying is a good example of mental strength."

Time for that first world title

For Clear, it is therefore clear that, if Ferrari deliver a good car in 2022, Leclerc can fight for the world title. "God yes he is ready, he is absolutely ready. That’s a different level of pressure. But all I can say at the moment is he has managed and coped with any other level of pressure so far." Clear cites that Leclerc did make mistakes in his first year, however the same is also true of Verstappen. "But nobody’s telling me Max isn’t ready to win a championship," Clear says.

If Ferrari builds a good car for 2022, Leclerc will likely be up against Verstappen and Hamilton. "And can he deal with that? Of course he can. But will he cope with that? Yes he will cope with that. He’s not gonna crumble," Clear concluded.