Charles Leclerc rejects Lewis Hamilton’s ‘old school’ Ferrari experiment

Charles Leclerc has no intention of following Lewis Hamilton’s lead by abandoning Ferrari’s simulator, insisting it remains a “very powerful tool” in his preparation.

Feeling a disconnect between what he was experiencing on Ferrari’s simulator and his performance on the track, Hamilton declared ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix that he would not use the sim for his pre-race preparations.

Charles Leclerc backs Ferrari simulator use

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The seven-time world champion went on to record his best-ever result with Ferrari in Montreal as he secured second place behind Kimi Antonelli.

It was also arguably Hamilton’s strongest-ever weekend against Leclerc.

Hamilton outpaced Leclerc in the qualifying sessions for the Sprint and the Grand Prix, and although he lost out in the Sprint through a late overtake, he had Leclerc’s measure in the Grand Prix. Hamilton finished second, 30 seconds ahead of his team-mate, who was P4.

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Hamilton admitted that he is unlikely to return to the simulator to help with race preparation as he’d rather go old school.

“Whether or not I use it to prepare for another race? Probably not,” he said. “There are just too many risks.

“If you look at the two best races I’ve had, I didn’t use a simulator and that’s honestly how it was.

“Pretty much all the championships before, except for probably 2008, I didn’t use the sim, so it’s not a necessity.

“It’s a tool that can be powerful, but, for me, I’m old school. I’m probably better without it.”

His decision was reportedly met with a “shrug of the shoulders” by Ferrari personnel, according to former race engineer Rob Smedley, who questioned the Briton’s decision.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, he said: “He has a sample size of one. All of a sudden, it’s statistically true that if you don’t go on the simulator, you’re on the podium.”

One other person who has shrugged off Hamilton’s decision is his teammate Leclerc.

Unlike Hamilton’s old-school approach, Leclerc has always relied on the simulator for his pre-race preparations and says he will continue to use the tool going forward.

“It doesn’t affect my preparation at all,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Monaco of his teammate’s sim snub. “At the end, I think we all have our preferences.

“For me, the simulator has been working very well. This is what I’ve done since arriving in Formula One, and I’m not going to change that.

“It’s been a very powerful tool for me and in the past, also very often, we do changes on the car based on what we try on a simulator back at home.

“So it’s part of the developing process of the car, and, yeah, it works for me, so I’ll keep going there.”

Leclerc is three points ahead of Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship, with the Ferrari teammates third and fourth in the standings behind the Mercedes pairing of Kimi Antonelli (131) and George Russell (88).

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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