Hamilton stands firm on Ferrari simulator decision with Leclerc benefitting at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton won’t climb into Ferrari’s simulator any time soon, not after Charles Leclerc’s decision to swap his sim set-up for Hamilton’s direction helped his teammate to the British GP victory.

Unable to build on his debut Ferrari podium at the Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton decided to adopt a “different approach” by ditching Ferrari’s simulator.

Lewis Hamilton reveals Ferrari simulator decision after British Grand Prix

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Recording back-to-back P6s in Japan and Miami, he revealed that what he was experiencing in the Ferrari simulator versus the real-life SF-26 did not align.

“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,” he told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Miami.

“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.”

Hamilton bounced back with a run of three podium results, culminating in a first victory in red at the Barcelona Grand Prix.

It meant that heading to Silverstone, instead of relying on the simulator, Hamilton’s engineers picked his brain about the set-up. They couldn’t have turned to anyone better, as Hamilton is a nine-time British Grand Prix winner.

On the other side of the garage, though, Leclerc initially worked on the simulator to find his baseline set-up.

While that told Ferrari which way to go, Hamilton and his engineers decided to stick with what he knew, with Leclerc later going in Hamilton’s direction.

The Monegasque won the British Grand Prix ahead of George Russell after a pit stop behind the race-ending Safety Car cost Hamilton a position and dropped him to third.

“I mean, up until now, we really have been making such great progress,” the seven-time world champion 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.”

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The 1-3 was Ferrari’s first double podium of the F1 2026 championship.

Although Hamilton remained third in the drivers’ standings, the Briton’s deficit to Kimi Antonelli was reduced to 32 points after the Mercedes championship leader failed to score a point.

Ferrari is only 78 points behind Mercedes.

“It’s amazing to see the pace that we’ve had this weekend at this sort of circuit,” said Hamilton. “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.”

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