Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he will take a radical new approach to preparation for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton and Ferrari endured a frustrating weekend in Miami, despite bringing 11 upgrades to the SF-26.
Effectively running a completely new car, the hope at Maranello was that the team could challenge the dominant Mercedes, with extensive simulator testing taking place in preparation.
But instead of challenging the Silver Arrows, Ferrari fell behind McLaren, who emerged as the next best threat to Mercedes.
The disappointment has led Hamilton to confirm he will be dramatically changing his approach for Canada, revealing issues with simulator correlation and live track data.
“I’m going to have a different approach in the next race,” Hamilton said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“Because the way we’re preparing at the moment is, it’s not helping. And so we’ll see how that goes for the next race.
“Ultimately it’s always [a matter of] correlation. We go on it, and then get to the track and the car feels different when you get to a track.
“I don’t like simulators in general, but I’m at the simulator every week in the build-up to this race and working on correlation constantly.
“You go on it, you prepare for the track, you drive it and you get the car set-up to a certain place – and then you come to the track and that set-up doesn’t work.
Lewis Hamilton reveals surprise decision led to “best weekend” in China
Detailing his rationale, Hamilton confirmed how and he the team would analyse the issues to find a route forward.
“And in the sprint weekend for example, you’ve only got practice one, you don’t really want to veer off from your set-up too far, like with a big suspension change, and so you stay with it. And then you make a change going into qualifying and you’ve only got six laps to get on top of it.
“So in an ideal world I should have started where Charles was at the beginning of the weekend and I think we would have just had a stronger weekend from there on.
“So I’m not going to go on the simulator between now and the next race [in Canada]. I’ll still go and hold meetings at the factory and stuff – but I’m just going to back away from it for a little bit and see.
The Briton then revealed that the one weekend he did no simulator worked to his best race of the year – the Chinese GP, where he secured third.
“When we went to China I had the best weekend without the sim.”
Hamilton’s race was ultimately ruined by substantial damage picked up in an opening lap clash with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
“Generally, I’m happy with it [the car], we just started on the wrong foot this weekend,” he added.
“The car didn’t feel very snappy on the way into corners and then massive understeer in the mid-corner – so that’s not the balance that you would want.
“It was better for qualifying than for going into the race, but I wasn’t able to really capitalise on it.”
Hamilton’s decision to avoid simulator points to a lack of confidence in trusting the data it provides. If the seven-time world champion performs well in Canada, he will no doubt feel vindicated.
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