F1 News: Lewis Hamilton claims going against Ferrari has helped him 'massively'

Vasseur looking serious in conversation with Hamilton, who has back to the camera — Photo: © IMAGO

Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton claims going against Ferrari has helped him 'massively'

Hamilton maintains he knows best

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Friday 17 July 2026 21:12

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F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton is standing by his decision to go his own way when preparing for a race weekend with Ferrari instead of blindly following their simulator suggestions.

The seven-time champion made headlines after this year's Miami Grand Prix, partially blaming his disappointing P6 result on the preparation he had done on the Scuderia's F1 simulator prior to the event.

Hamilton claimed there was a major correlation issue with the sim and how the car actually felt on track, citing his best result at that point in the season so far in China as an example of how well he performs without simulator preparation.

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The 41-year-old then doubled down and abandoned all sim work prior to the next round in Canada, where he was vindicated by a P2 finish and return to the podium.

Since then, the former Mercedes star has broken his win drought and finally claimed a grand prix victory in red, and it appears he isn't willing to give up on the idea that he knows best anytime soon.

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Hamilton stays away from 'misleading' Ferrari F1 simulator

The 106-time grand prix winner has come on leaps and bounds since the Miami GP and his determination to reshape Ferrari into a team that can now challenge the Silver Arrows for both titles this season is inspiring.

With this recent upturn in performance for Fred Vasseur's squad, fans may be wondering whether Hamilton has stuck to his stance on sim prep being unnecessary, and we now have an answer from the man himself ahead of this weekend's Belgian GP.

Asked by Motorsport whether he has used the simulator since Canada, Hamilton simply replied: "No," confirming his dedication to going against the grain at Maranello.

When further pushed on how much this has helped him over the last few races, he smiled before admitting: "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."

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari