Lewis Hamilton stated that he intends to temporarily step away from Ferrari’s simulator, after considering that the tool led him in the wrong direction in car setup during the Miami GP weekend. The Brit explained that the main difficulty was the lack of correlation between the simulator and the real behavior of the car on the track:
Read more F1: Verstappen reveals race he would like to compete in 2026
“Ultimately, it all comes down to correlation. We use the simulator, get to the track, and the car behaves differently,” Hamilton told the press. Even without being a fan of the equipment throughout his 20 seasons in Formula 1, the seven-time world champion revealed that he used the simulator frequently before the Miami round.
“You know I don’t like simulators in general, but I used the simulator every week before this race, constantly working on the correlation. In an ideal world, I should have started where Charles [Leclerc] was in FP1, and I believe we would have had a much stronger weekend.”
Read more F1: Starting problems worry Antonelli in the 2026 season
In Miami, the seven-time champion was seventh in the Sprint and finished the GP in sixth place after the penalty applied to Leclerc. According to him, the car showed excessive understeer and a balance more favorable for qualifying than for the race: “We simply started off on the wrong foot. The car was very aggressive on corner entry and with excessive understeer in the middle of the corner.”
Given the experience in Miami, Hamilton stated that he will not use the simulator until the next race. “So, I won’t use the simulator between now and the next race. I will still attend meetings at the factory, but I will step away from the simulator a bit.”
Read more F1: Croft says «alarm bells start ringing» if Russell does not beat Antonelli in Canada
