How Hamilton switched to a "different approach" for F1 Canadian GP

Lewis Hamilton is changing his preparation approach for the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix after struggling at the Miami GP, where he was 0.176 seconds slower than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in qualifying and fell 24 seconds behind in the race. Hamilton noted that the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai — his only successful recent weekend — was the one race he did not prepare for on the simulator, and he believes the simulator has been steering him toward a suboptimal car setup due to poor correlation with real track performance. He described the Ferrari SF-26's handling in Miami as lacking sharpness into corners and suffering from significant mid-corner understeer, prompting the switch back to a simulator-free preparation method.