The bold decision from Lewis Hamilton to ditch Ferrari’s simulator has appeared to rub off on teammate Charles Leclerc, who went on to take British Grand Prix victory.
After struggling to keep momentum after his debut Ferrari podium in China, Hamilton adopted a different approach to race preparation by ditching Ferrari’s simulator. The British driver revealed in Miami after back-to-back P6 finishes that the experience of the simulator compared to the real life car were not aligning.
“I spend time on the simulator, you know I don’t like simulators in general, but I was at the simulator every week on 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.”
So, he stopped relying on the simulator. And went on to have a run of three podiums, including his first win for Ferrari in Barcelona.
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, Hamilton’s engineers relied on the seven-time world champion’s extensive knowledge of the Silverstone track for the set-up of the SF-26. On the other side of the garage, Leclerc initially used the simulator to work out his set-up. But ultimately followed his teammate’s direction, and ended up taking the victory.
Lewis Hamilton bounced back with a maiden Ferrari victory in Barcelona, and Charles Leclerc followed it up in Britain – his first win for 640 days
Hamilton’s direction is the right one
Hamilton finished third after a pit stop under the late safety car dropped him down a place from second.
“I mean, up until now, we really have been making such great progress,” he said at Silverstone.
“And what gives me confidence is coming into this weekend, the simulator said that we should start in a much different place with the set-up, and my engineers and I decided to stay within the direction that we would normally go.
“Charles started the way it was, that the sim would say to go, and then ended up my philosophy. The direction that I was taking was ultimately the right one, and he migrated that way.
“It’s good to see that direction that I have pushed for is paying off and that we’ve just got to continue to make changes and continue to push. We’ve got to continue to bring upgrades.”
Silverstone marked the Scuderia’s first double podium in the 2026 season. And in fact, their first double podium since Lewis Hamilton joined the squad in 2025. Although the Brit stayed third in the Driver’s Standings, the gap to leader Kimi Antonelli is now just 32 points.
“It’s amazing to see the pace that we’ve had this weekend at this sort of circuit. We definitely didn’t anticipate it.
“So just phenomenal to be strong weekend as a team and come away with really good points is really, really special. And a big, huge thanks to the team,” Hamilton said at Silverstone.
READ MORE – Watch: Ferrari takes SF-26 for a spin around the Madring
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