Lewis Hamilton still avoiding Ferrari’s F1 sim: ‘It’s…

Lewis Hamilton has maintained his approach of not using Ferrari’s Formula 1 simulator – and that’s for the better, according to him.

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in May, Hamilton decided to stop using the simulator in Maranello because he felt the correlation was not good enough and he couldn’t prepare properly with that tool.

Since then, the seven-time world champion has outscored everyone on the grid, including the Silver Arrows, with 96 points to Kimi Antonelli’s 79, George Russell’s 74 and Charles Leclerc’s 49, though misfortune at Mercedes contributed to this and his Ferrari team-mate has had his own hardships.

Asked by Motorsport if he has used the simulator since Canada, Hamilton simply replied: “No.” Pressed on how much this has helped him over the last few races, he smiled: “Massively.

“I tried all last year with it, but as I said, when I was at Mercedes for the first few years I didn't use it. As it continued to develop, there was a point where we didn't use it.

“I've been driving simulators since 1997 and they can be really powerful and really useful tools, but they can also mislead you. I found all last year particularly that was the case, and then in previous years when I was at Mercedes it was very similar, so that's why I didn't use it. Since I stopped, my performance has gone much, much better.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images)

However, Hamilton does expect Ferrari to have a harder time against Mercedes at Spa-Francorchamps, after Leclerc won the British Grand Prix last time out.

“On this track, it's very difficult,” the Briton reckoned. “This track is lots and lots of straights. We went to Silverstone and we thought that it was going to be much further down, the power, and it was quick through the corners, so it was far better than we anticipated.

“So, we come here again not really knowing what to expect, except for the track that is like 50% more straights. I think there still was a gap of maybe three or four tenths in the last race, so here we probably anticipate it will be a little bit more. But we're doing everything we can.

“In terms of just upgrades, I'm so proud of the team, they're just continuing to push to optimise the car. We're just making fine adjustments to it every week, which is great to see, rather than one upgrade coming several months later, another one’s coming every weekend, just improving little bits whenever we find something.”