Lewis Hamilton decided to take a different approach for the Canadian Formula 1 GP. After a frustrating weekend in Miami, the Ferrari driver chose to stay away from the simulator in preparation for the next stage.
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The decision comes after the team failed to turn a broad package of updates into on-track performance. Even with eleven new features on the car, Ferrari did not threaten Mercedes and was still behind McLaren in competitiveness.
Hamilton explained that the main problem lies in the correlation between simulator data and the real behavior of the car: “I will have a different approach at the next race, because the way we are preparing is not helping,” he said. He detailed the difficulty: “You use the simulator, prepare the setup, but when you get on the track the car is different and that setup doesn’t work.”
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The seven-time world champion highlighted that, in weekends with a Sprint format, the limited time worsens the situation. According to him, bigger changes in the setup are restricted, and the team needs to react quickly with few laps available, which compromises the final result.
As an alternative, Hamilton decided not to use the simulator until the race in Canada: “I’m not going to use the simulator until the next race. I will continue attending meetings at the factory, but I want to step away from it for a while,” he said. He cited the Chinese GP as a positive example, when he achieved his best result of the year without resorting to the simulator. Despite the problems, Hamilton said he is satisfied with the car but acknowledged that the weekend started with the wrong setup and limited his chances to make better use of the performance.
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