(Motorsport-Total.com) – Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has been foregoing virtual preparation in the Formula 1 simulator since the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix – and he intends to keep it that way. “Because my performance has improved significantly since then,” explained the seven-time world champion.
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Indeed, the current world championship standings show remarkable consistency for Hamilton in the race weekends since Canada: Hamilton was second, second, first, fifth, and third in the last five Grands Prix. In the races before that, he had finished fourth, third, sixth, and sixth. The results seem to confirm him.
Not using the simulator has helped him “enormously,” Hamilton said ahead of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps (follow all units here in the Formula 1 live ticker!).
How much of a distraction the simulator was for Hamilton
“I have been using simulators since 1997, and they can be incredibly powerful and useful tools. But they can also mislead you. I experienced that consistently last year. And it was very similar in previous years at Mercedes. That’s why I stopped using the simulator,” Hamilton explained.
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For Hamilton, this was a radical step, because until 2025 inclusive, he said he sat in the simulator “every week.” “But most of the time it went like this: You work everything through in the simulator, find a setup you feel comfortable with, arrive at the racetrack – and suddenly everything is exactly the opposite. Then you have to discard everything you worked out in the simulator again.”
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He repeatedly experienced that a simulator setup does not always translate into reality. “What feels good in the simulator sometimes doesn’t work at all on the track,” Hamilton said. His conclusion: “In the end, it’s a gamble.” And Hamilton no longer wants to engage in that.
Without simulator: How Hamilton prepares now
What does he do instead? “I focus more on data analysis,” said the Ferrari driver. Together with the team, he analyzes vehicle balance and brake balance particularly intensively. “That had caused me problems for some time, but it ultimately led to a really good collaboration with my engineers.”
It also brought Hamilton back to the world elite: After the first nine race weekends of the 2026 Formula 1 season, he is in third place in the drivers’ standings – well ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
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