Ferrari engineer Jock Clear admits there is as much emphasis on the Italian team to be ready for Charles Leclerc in 2019 as there is the Monegasque for his big move.
The current Sauber driver will become the youngest man to race for the Scuderia in over half a century when he takes to the grid in Melbourne next March with only a single year of Formula 1 experience under his belt.
While it might seem then the step is big for the 21-year-old, for Ferrari it also presents possible scenarios that they haven’t had to deal with in a very long time.
“One of the comments that many people made was ‘is he ready?’ Well, we have to be ready as well to take this step,” Clear, who is considered to be Leclerc’s likely race engineer next season told Motorsport.com.
“It is a brave step that Ferrari has made, and we’re all pleased about the fact that we’re willing to make that step, but we have to be ready to give him the opportunity and support him in the right way.
“Hopefully he’ll go on to great things. I think the relationship with Seb [Vettel] will be important.
“We need to manage that very positively and make sure the team as a whole grows, not just on Charles’s side and not just on Seb’s side.”
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There is great anticipation over what Leclerc, another key member of F1’s new generation of drivers, can do against the established names and champions and Clear does think his association with Ferrari can help.
“We’ve known Charles for a while now,” he noted. “We’ve had a relationship with him over a few years, from his days in the Academy so he’s not an unknown entity for us, we’re not going into this completely blind.
“Clearly in his first year in F1 he’s showed some great potential, he’s had some great races, so I think everybody is excited about the prospect.
“Everybody knows what kind of pressure he will come under, that racing at the very sharp end is going to be a very different prospect for him, but that’s a challenge for us as well.”
