Lewis Hamilton produced his most convincing weekend in Ferrari colours at the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing second and declaring it the high point of his time with the Scuderia. He believes a change to the way he prepares was behind the breakthrough.
Hamilton out-qualified team-mate Charles Leclerc, beat him across both the sprint and the Grand Prix, and passed Max Verstappen on track to take second place, ten seconds behind runaway winner Kimi Antonelli.
"Oh man, it's the happiest day of my days at Ferrari so far," Hamilton said after the race. "It feels great to be able to put the Ferrari on the podium and to get my first second place with the team as well in the main race."
The seven-time world champion was emphatic that the result was the product of hard work behind the scenes over the winter.
"I finally have the engineering team that I've been working towards. I think our car is great," he said. "The guys did a fantastic job over winter to get the car where it is, and I understand it a lot better. I'm much more comfortable with it."
The most significant change was to his routine. For Montreal, Hamilton skipped the Ferrari simulator entirely, focusing instead on deep data analysis around corner entry, braking and ride stability, then arriving at a setup that transformed the car from Friday practice onwards.
"I didn't do the sim. It was the best I felt all year," Hamilton said. "I think that's the way forward for me."
The Race noted that Hamilton looked vindicated in his non-simulator approach, appearing happier and more comfortable in and out of the car than at any point in his Ferrari stint. Telemetry from the weekend showed him as the fastest driver through Montreal's opening sequence of corners, where his heavy-braking style thrives.
The approach was more nuanced than the soundbite suggested. Hamilton will still use the simulator for deployment strategies and to help the team with data correlation. It is his personal driving and setup preparation where he is now convinced he is better off going old-school, trusting his feel and the track in front of him over a simulator setup he would then have to heavily adjust.
The context made the result all the more striking. Leclerc, who described Canada as probably the most difficult weekend of his Formula 1 career, was beaten by Hamilton in sprint qualifying, qualifying and the race. Hamilton also overtook Verstappen on track despite Ferrari continuing to lose ground on the straights.
There are caveats. Ferrari's straightline deficit remains, and Antonelli's Mercedes still held a race-pace advantage of around three tenths of a second per lap. There have been false dawns in the Hamilton-Ferrari relationship before.
But this looked and sounded different, a tangible breakthrough rather than a flattering one-off, and Hamilton carries the momentum into Monaco having reaffirmed that he intends to be in the sport for a long time yet.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/hamilton-happiest-ferrari-day-no-sim-canada-p2-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
