Ahead of the 2026 F1 Belgian GP, Lewis Hamilton discussed the improvements on his performance as well as how he expects the Ferrari to perform this weekend. Hamilton was able to score a podium at the last race weekend. Securing P3 in front of his home crowd at Silverstone.
Hamilton on not using the simulator to prepare for races
There has been a shift in performance from Lewis Hamilton following the 2026 Canadian GP. The Brit has scored 4 out of 5 podiums from Canada, even managing to win the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, claiming his first victory in red.
During a print media session ahead of the 2026 F1 Belgian GP, Hamilton discussed how helpful it has been not using the simulator to prepare for races. The 41-year-old stopped using the simulator at Maranello ahead of Canada. This is not the first time he’s opted out of using the simulator, for most of his Mercedes spell he did it.
“Massively [helped not to use it]. I mean, I tried over the 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 did 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. When I found all last year, particularly that was the case. In previous years, as I said, when I was at Mercedes, it was very similar, so that’s why I didn’t use it.
“Since I stopped, my performance has gotten much, much better.”
Lewis Hamilton discusses potential Ferrari gap to Mercedes ahead of 2026 F1 Belgium GP
Ferrari are currently chasing Mercedes for P1 in the Constructors Championship. With Mercedes 78 points ahead of the Maranello-based team. The seven-time World Champion is 32 points behind Kimi Antonelli on the Drivers’ side.
During Thursday’s media day at the F1 Belgian GP, Hamilton shared his thoughts on where he expects Ferrari to be this weekend.
At the British GP, Ferrari performed better than the team anticipated, with Charles Leclerc winning and the home hero in P3.
However, Hamilton admitted that they expect a bigger gap to Mercedes this weekend.
“I mean, it’s very difficult on this track, it’s lots and lots of straights. We went to Silverstone and we thought that it was going to be much further down the power and we were quick through the corners. So it was far better than we anticipated.
“So, we come here again not really knowing what to expect. Except for the track that is like 50% more straights. I think there still was a gap of maybe 3 or 4 tenths maybe in the last race. So here we probably anticipate it would be a little more.
The team are also making changes to the car every week. Attempting to optimise the performance of their 2026 challenger. Hamilton praised the team for their hard work ahead of the F1 Belgian GP.
“But we’re doing everything we can. In terms of just upgrades, I’m so proud of the team, they’re just continuing to push to optimise the car. We’re just making fine adjustments to it every week, which is great to see.
“Rather than one upgrade comes, several months later another one comes. Like every weekend, just being little bits whenever we find something.”
