Hamilton, reverse gear halfway on the simulator: “The Ferrari one is the best I’ve ever seen. But I’m not using it”

The simulator ‘case’ The words uttered by Lewis Hamilton at the end of the disappointing weekend in Miami had caused discussion. The Englishman had pointed the finger, at least apparently, at the Ferrari simulator, saying that he would no longer use it to prepare for Grands Prix because “I think the simulator is taking me in the wrong direction, so I think I will eliminate it for now”. A clear comment that probably didn’t make Ferrari happy. Thus, during the press conference to present the weekend in Montreal, the seven-time world champion made a partial course correction, which smacks of a ‘punch on the ear’ from the red press office. In fact, Hamilton confirmed that he had not worked on the simulator during the last few weeks, but was full of praise regarding the level reached by the Maranello simulator. The best, but I don’t use it “No, I haven’t worked on the simulator, but first of all the simulator is fantastic and the Ferrari one is truly extraordinary to work on – commented #44 – it’s the best I’ve ever seen. It’s the best group of people we’ve ever been able to work with and I have to say that their simulator is truly incredible. It’s an extremely powerful tool and something that as a team we continue to develop. Since I’ve been there I think I’ve also given an important input in some of the simulations – Hamilton then added – and the team has reacted positively by making many changes and we are continuing to improve the tool.” Hamilton then retraced all the steps of his career, between McLaren and Mercedes, also underlining how at the beginning of the hybrid era, when the silver arrows dominated unchallenged, in Brackley there was actually no in-depth structure dedicated to the simulator: “When I arrived at Mercedes they were quite behind in terms of simulator – explained the English champion – despite us winning all those championships I had barely used the simulator, I did it very rarely. Then in the two-year period 2020-2021 I started using it a little more.” However, the most successful driver in the history of F1 seems to have developed a fundamental distrust towards this tool, which is instead increasingly central in contemporary F1: “There was only one time in all the years of my career in which I used the simulator and the set-up I tried there was exactly what I replicated in qualifying, obtaining pole. I think it was in Singapore in 2012, or something similar. Other times it’s not exactly perfect, but it’s a useful tool. Since the year last week I used it every week and very often after all the work on the simulator you find a set-up that you are comfortable with but then you go on the track and everything is the other way around. I therefore decided that now I will leave the simulator alone and focus more on the details and the data – concluded Hamilton – we have analyzed in depth the balance of the corners, the mechanical balance, how to use the brakes and how to approach the various corners. This has led to an excellent job of integrating the data with my engineers which I won’t say I will never use (the simulator) again, because it is something useful that I will certainly use in some events in particular, but I think that in the last 5-6 months the work I have done on the correlation after the weekend and then in the subsequent tracks sometimes does not correspond totally.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-22 15:00:00