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Lewis Hamilton recorded his best-ever finish in Ferrari colours at the Canadian Grand Prix, and revealed how a slightly more relaxed approach to the race weekend aided the feat.
The seven-time world champion rolled back the years during the fifth round of the 2026 season, with his dazzling around-the-outside move on Max Verstappen in the latter stages of the race proving to be the cherry on top.
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It secured Hamilton a P2 finish at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which marked the best finish of his Ferrari career so far. It also continued his streak of fine form at the Montreal-based circuit – Hamilton has never seen the chequered flag at the Canadian GP lower than P6.
During his media duties on the Thursday before the race weekend kicked off, the 41-year-old Briton outlined how he decided against taking up any simulator work ahead of taking to the track. While it raised some eyebrows at the time, it seemingly paid off come race day.
Lewis Hamilton reveals how skipping ‘draining’ Ferrari commitments aided season-best P2
Hamilton’s post-Grand Prix comments to ViaPlay shed some more light on his approach to the race weekend in Canada. He also stated how it is likely to be the ‘formula’ for him for future rounds.
“I think the difference is that over the past couple of weeks I had less commitments,” he told the Dutch broadcaster. “[They were] not draining; I didn’t go to the factory, I didn’t go on a simulator, I just focused on sleep and training, but not, like, killing myself.
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“I stayed in this time zone, I got to see friends, I got to see some family, and I arrived full of energy. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and where I wanted to put the car, and I arrived. This is the formula now; I need to try and take that forward.”
Ralf Schumacher has been a staunch critic of Hamilton’s lack of time on the simulator at Maranello, and has often pointed to it as a key reason why Charles Leclerc has got the better of him up to this point.
Former teammate Jenson Button is under the same impression. The 2009 world champion told Hamilton that simulator work simply has to be done, but the Briton’s P2 on Sunday seemingly begs to differ.
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Why doesn’t Lewis Hamilton like using the simulator ahead of F1 races?
During the pre-event press conference in Montreal, Hamilton delved into the reasons why he doesn’t particularly like to prepare for a race weekend by clocking in laps on Ferrari’s simulator.
The seven-time world champion began by noting that it is a powerful tool for drivers, but he feels like “the goalposts are always moving.”
Of course, simulator work consists of long hours and countless laps, but for Hamilton, he feels there is “a point at which you stop learning when you’re doing so many laps.”
He then outlined how his pole position at the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix was the only time in his career that he believes simulator work aided his form out on track.
Hamilton concluded by revealing that he hadn’t done any work on the sim in the lead-up to the Chinese Grand Prix either, which happened to be the site of his first top-three finish for Ferrari.
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