Charles Leclerc’s 2024 season has been remarkably consistent, with multiple wins and podium finishes. Yet, somehow, his name rarely comes up in discussions about the best driver of the year. He’s currently on a nine-race streak of top-five finishes— a feat unmatched by any other driver.
F1 analyst Daniel Valente took to Twitter to point this out. Leclerc has been performing extraordinarily well, with his last non-top five finish coming at the British GP, a race that Lewis Hamilton won.
After Leclerc, comes George Russell with just two consecutive top-five finishes — Mexico City and Sao Paulo. A huge gap, showing how inconsistent the rest of the field has been compared to Leclerc.
After Russell, the Sao Paulo GP podium trio of Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon, and Pierre Gasly stand at one race each. This is largely due to the teams’ highly volatile performance from track to track, which has either benefited or handicapped certain drivers.
Charles Leclerc has the longest active streak of top 5 finishes & it’s not close. Please acknowledge the certified jinx protection included.
Consecutive Races Finishing in the Top 5
Leclerc: 9
Russell: 2
Verstappen: 1
Ocon: 1
Gasly: 1
Norris: 0
Piastri: 0
Hamilton: 0
Perez: 0 pic.twitter.com/tjcppiaK5v— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) November 11, 2024
However, Leclerc has been in a purple patch of form since the summer break. With Ferrari resolving their mid-season issues of the SF-24 suffering from porpoising, the Monegasque driver has capitalized on the improved potential of the car to register two race wins in Monza and Austin.
Even at other races, Ferrari has been quite proactive with their strategies and setup changes to maximize their results. The Dutch GP was the perfect case in point, where they pitted Leclerc to trigger an early undercut on Oscar Piastri. This was a critical move and it worked with the #16 driver holding off Piastri for the rest of the race and managing his tires well too.
At the next race in Monza as well, Leclerc and Ferrari pulled off a masterclass in strategy and tire management that helped him emerge as the victor.
How Leclerc’s race management has improved
The Italian GP win came out of nowhere for Leclerc, with Ferrari’s gamble to opt for a one-stop strategy. Still, the Monegasque driver put in a metronomic stint of 38 laps to make his hard tires last till the end of the race.
It was a monumental effort with Leclerc’s race pace being rather consistent. Glimpses of this improvement in the 27-year-old’s driving have been visible at several other Grands Prix this season as well.
The Japanese GP was one such race where Leclerc executed a one-stop strategy while everyone else pitted twice. This approach earned him a fourth-place finish, a strong recovery after starting P8 at Suzuka—a narrow track where overtaking is challenging—following a difficult qualifying session.
Leclerc is out of championship contention this season despite these remarkable performances. In hindsight, it seems like a missed opportunity, because if Ferrari did not have that mid-season slump, he could have been within touching distance of Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings.
