Lewis Hamilton has tweaked his preparation for the Canadian Grand Prix, having struggled of late in System 1.
Apart from a profitable weekend at Shanghai, Hamilton has underperformed relative to Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc to date in 2026, together with final day trip in Miami.
The Briton was 0.379s slower in dash qualifying, then 0.176s down in the principle session; he was 24 seconds away from Leclerc within the grand prix earlier than the Monegasque spun, hit the wall and landed a penalty for corner-cutting – all of which occurred on the ultimate lap.
Because it occurs, the Chinese language Grand Prix was the one one Hamilton didn’t put together for on the simulator; he mentioned he would revert to this strategy forward of Canada as he felt the device, as an alternative of being useful, was steering his automotive away from the best set-up, due to its correlation (or lack thereof) with observe efficiency.
Hamilton described the SF-26’s behaviour on the Floridan observe – particularly early within the weekend – as “not very snappy into corners” and affected by “large understeer in mid-corner”, therefore a shift being required.
“I’ll have a unique strategy within the subsequent race, as a result of the best way we’re getting ready in the mean time isn’t serving to,” Hamilton, who’s mendacity fifth within the drivers’ championship, mentioned following the Miami spherical.
“We go on [the simulator] after which it will get to the observe and the automotive feels completely different when it will get to the observe.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photograph by: Ryan Pierse / Getty Pictures
Requested to broaden on how he wasn’t ‘getting ready correctly’, the seven-time world champion defined: “What I imply by it’s that I spend time on the simulator. I do not like simulators on the whole. I used to be within the simulator each week on the build-up to this race, engaged on correlation continually. You go on it, you put together for the observe, you drive it and also you get the automotive set as much as a sure place, and then you definately come to the observe and that set-up does not work.
“On the dash weekend, for instance, you’ve got solely bought Observe 1. You do not actually need to veer off out of your set-up too far, like with an enormous suspension change. So that you stick with it and then you definately make a change going into qualifying and you have solely bought six laps to get on high of it.
“So in a super world I ought to have began the place Charles was originally of the weekend, and I feel we’d have simply had a stronger weekend from there.
“So, I am not going to go on the simulator proper now on the subsequent race. I am going to nonetheless go and maintain conferences on the manufacturing facility and stuff. I am simply going to again away from it for a bit bit and see. After we went to China I had the most effective weekend with out sim.”
Hamilton did make clear that he was proud of the SF-26 in addition to the set-up downside, with this 12 months’s smaller, nimbler vehicles suiting his choice higher.
Regardless, Hamilton expects the Canadian GP to be one other difficult race for Ferrari, as a result of successive 600m, 550m, 1.2km and 650m straights, with the Scuderia down on energy relative to Mercedes.
“We’re shedding three to 4 tenths simply on straightline pace, in order that’s there and it is going to be there till we repair it,” Hamilton identified. “We have to see if we are able to minimize some drag earlier than the subsequent race.”
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