Jock Clear to become Ferrari driver coach

Ferrari

Clear to become Ferrari driver coach

Clear spent 2020 as Leclerc's coach but will now oversee all young Ferrari drivers

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Thursday 28 January 2021 07:58

Mattia Binotto has revealed he expects Jock Clear to oversee the development of Ferrari's young drivers in a coaching capacity.

Clear, who has worked for the Scuderia since joining from Mercedes where he acted as race engineer for Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, has most recently worked as a coach for Charles Leclerc since the Monégasque's 2019 move.

But Binotto is keen to see this role expanded for this coming season to support the rest of the engineering team.

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"Jock is a great person, a great professional," said Binotto. "He has been at Ferrari for many years.

"His role in 2020 was what we call driver coach, so he is an engineer which is supporting the drivers in order for them to perform to their best, looking at the lines, looking at the ways they are braking through the corners, accelerating, managing tyres.

"So he is there also to support the race engineers, performance engineers and the drivers to make sure that the driver is developing well.

"We had some chats with Jock and we would like to develop him even more as a driver coach, not only for Charles, but looking ahead to the future with our young driver line-up we have got in the Ferrari Driver Academy."

The driver academy has seen Mick Schumacher promoted to Haas for the new season, with Antonio Giovinazzi retaining his drive at Alfa Romeo, Callum Ilott signing up as test driver and Robert Shwartzman continuing in Formula 2.

Its latest addition is 16-year-old Maya Weug, the first female in FDA history.

Binotto has indicated Clear's new role will allow all drivers in the Ferrari stable to discover their potential.

"We have got Mick in Haas starting his experience in F1 but we have still got young drivers competing in the F2, for example, Robert Shwartzman," he explained.

"Callum Ilott is our test driver, but still, we will do simulators, free practices so the role of Jock will be to work with the drivers to help develop themselves as drivers trying to exploit the most of their potential."