(Motorsport-Total.com) – Lewis Hamilton seems to have found a completely new way at Ferrari – and it could pay off for the first time in Montreal. The seven-time world champion deliberately skipped simulator work before the Canadian Grand Prix and then showed himself as strong as he has in a long time.
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In both qualifying sessions, Hamilton beat his teammate Charles Leclerc. In the sprint qualifying, he was 0.084 seconds ahead, in the main qualifying even 0.108 seconds. Particularly remarkable: Hamilton was faster than the Monegasque in all six qualifying segments of the weekend.
This is a clear turnaround. Before Montreal, Leclerc had clearly led the internal qualifying duel of the season with 27:9. And even of Hamilton’s previous successes against his teammate, four fell on the weekend in China – the race where the Brit also skipped simulator work.
Montreal now seems to confirm this unusual approach again. “It felt great,” says Hamilton after qualifying. “We made some good changes. Honestly, I even think that without the botched last lap I could have been third.”
Hamilton finally feels more comfortable in the Ferrari
According to Hamilton, Ferrari has recently made clear progress especially in the driving feel. The 41-year-old openly talks about feeling much more comfortable now attacking the car aggressively at the corner entry.
“It’s about the brakes, the stability when turning in, and generally the setup that I have now worked towards,” explains Hamilton. “I’m much happier with that and can take the corners much more aggressively.”
Especially the braking issue had occupied Hamilton repeatedly in recent months. He complained several times that he lacked confidence in the car when braking – a central problem when you have to consistently find the last hundredths at the highest level.
Hamilton: Ferrari simulator “the best I’ve ever seen”
In Montreal, Ferrari now seems to have found a window that better suits Hamilton’s driving style for the first time. Interestingly, instead of preparing intensively in the simulator as usual, Hamilton this time focused almost exclusively on data analysis and direct work with his engineers.
“I decided to skip the simulator this time and focus more on the data,” he explained already on Thursday. “We worked intensively on the balance in the corners, the mechanical balance, the brake settings, and my corner approach.”
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Hamilton explicitly emphasizes that the Ferrari simulator is by no means bad. “The simulator is fantastic,” he clarifies. “It is the best simulator I have ever seen. The team there is incredible and we are constantly developing the system.”
Hamilton has doubted the usefulness of simulators for years
Nevertheless, Hamilton now looks more fundamentally skeptical about modern simulator work. The Brit explains in detail that virtual preparation often confuses him more than it helps. Hamilton had his first simulator experiences already in the late 1990s at McLaren.
But even during his dominant Mercedes years, he rarely used the tool. “At Mercedes, the simulator was quite far from reality at the beginning,” Hamilton recalls. “In all the years we won world championships, I hardly used it.”
Only from 2020 did he use the simulator more regularly – but with moderate success. “In 20 years, there was actually only one time that the simulator setup exactly matched the real car,” Hamilton says laughing. “That was probably Singapore 2012.”
The main problem: The impressions from the simulator often cannot be reproduced on the real track. “You work all week in the simulator, find a setup you feel comfortable with, come to the track – and suddenly everything feels completely different,” explains Hamilton. “Then you have to undo a lot of what you learned.”
Especially last year, this increasingly frustrated him. “Often it was just a hit or miss,” he says. “That’s why I wanted to try a different approach this time.”
Rain could help Hamilton additionally
And so far, this approach seems to be working. Particularly remarkable is that Hamilton was not only able to beat Leclerc in Montreal, but Ferrari also appeared significantly more competitive overall. The Brit even believes that the announced rainy conditions in the race could open up additional opportunities.
“I hope the rain brings us a bit closer to the guys at the front,” says Hamilton. “Maybe that gives us the chance to fight with Mercedes.” The conditions for that could actually be favorable. Hamilton has been considered one of the strongest rain drivers in Formula 1 for years, even though his previous seven wins in Montreal were all achieved on dry track.
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