Why Lewis Hamilton HATES the Simulator

“I hardly ever drive the simulator”

Back in 2021, Lewis Hamilton admitted he barely uses the Mercedes simulator. Which seems bizarre. Surely, a seven times World Champion would be doing ANYTHING he could to find an advantage.

Max literally has a sim in his motorhome, and Lewis isn’t touching one. That’s weird right?

“I have no interest in the simulator”.

So why does Lewis avoid the sim? And is it hurting his performance? Let's get into it.

First things first, why is a simulator good for a driver? You might think it’s about learning circuits and racing lines, but there’s much more to it than that.

Verstappen, who uses the sim more than any other driver does a huge amount on the simulator, and doesn’t even use a test driver like others. He says “I don’t want a test driver to take over the simulator sessions, like other teams do. I want to do it myself, because everyone has their own driving style.”

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[Nikelaos_Khristianos]

I think another key point to consider that you did not mention is the fact that Hamilton started racing in the era when a crazy amount of on-track testing was legal. By the time he debuted, he wasn't a rookie by today's standards. And I feel like this point of origin really matters in how he still views the simulator today.

[dampmeatball]

Him and max really are polar opposite, yet both incredibly fast

[jessevw]

I think it's a big generational thing, younger drivers seem to see an advantage. Verstappen especially is really into simracing and said it has helped him in real life racing, You could train certain senses, try lines and overtaking techniques without the IRL risk of a crash.

[jamsbong]

I can relate. As an simulation engineer for 20 years, the older gen engineers don’t trust simulation results but the new gen take simulation seriously.

[sven]

I've spent over 2000 hours on sims, but on my first irl track day I had a total sensory overload. I was completly off pace, even though I'm usually one of the "fast guys" in a sim. It is quite a bit different experience, however in the last session, once my brain started adjusting, I was rapidly improving.

[LuisSoto-hofw]

My son (who is 23) seems to benefit a great deal from the sims. To the point that when he goes to a real life track he's never been to before (but that he's driven on a sim), he can get within a tenth of the fastest drivers in pretty short order. Sim racing seems to be like sensory deprivation - and when sim drivers get onto real life cars they suddenly have all that other sensory information available to them. I'm, only privy to my son and his contemporaries who started racing at a time when sim racing games were already plentiful. These young guys seem to demonstrate that it's easier to go from a sim to a car than the opposite. In other words, the translation works a lot better going that way, because there is much less to unlearn, and much more to learn - and unlearning is much harder than learning. As a mental exercise, it's an amazingly valuable resource, and that's just one aspect.

[aaronbest]

I think that’s why the sim can be important to some drivers. It forces you to adapt to a different dynamic of driving where the sensory inputs are very limited. Now this may not aid or reflect directly in your pace in real life, but you are training your abilities to adapt to different scenarios which the ever changing factors of racing (weather, tires, car characteristics, etc) can pose a challenge. Max alludes to the adaptability part on the video Scott made about his sim experience as well. The focus of how you use the sim can influence the real life driving imo

[MJTbreww]

I’m not a Hamilton fan, but I’d say he’s done pretty well without it lol.

[aaronmachado]

I remember guys like Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson talking about why they race sprint cars and it’s same concept as the sim. It’s not meant to keep in tune with the car but more so to keep your race craft up to par. Certain skills like being about to read the track and anticipate drivers movement can translate from discipline to discipline.

[EnterScreenameHere]

I remember people argued over the RB car being designed for Max. I understand why though, his driver feedback is great and he's a top 3 sim driver. + Working with Adrian Newey must be a sick combo.

[GregHolland]

I started in real cars and got into sims later, I too struggled since I lost the feeling for the car in the seat and there's no way to replicate it. I strongly believe that its easier for a sim racer to get into a real car and get good than it is for a real driver to get in a sim and do good. With a sim driver, they will hop in a real car and have even more information to work with while they're used to working with limited information where a real driver will get into a sim and suddenly have to make due with much less. Its always case by case, have someone I race with who got into iRacing and sits in the 2000's for ir and another who got in the sim for the first time and shot to the 9000's for ir. It will sometimes just click for some people, and not for others.

[dianamaioru]

I think a VERY important thing you failed to mention is that Hamilton started in F1 in an era where sim software was premature and much less accurate. Driving in the sim in 2007 was only useful for learning the track corners and maybe an idea of what gear to be in for each corner. (Hamilton said so himself in the press conference after his fist win in the Canadian GP, 2007). On track testing was far more relevant and useful to improve yourself and your car. Hence, Lewis and other drivers of his generation such as Alonso, never got into sim-work that much and learned to deal and adapt without it. In this way, perhaps not doing sim work actually helped them improve their legendary on-track adaptability!

[artsmart]

As a pilot, retired by age-related vision loss I was excited when the recent MS 2020 sim came along. Thought I could re-live my experiences, but without gravity and the forces of nature the experience was rather hollow. You can be on final in a monster crosswind making all the right control inputs and nature can still sweep you away. Its mainly the terrifying forces working on your body that tells you you have exceed what is prudent or even possible

[AndreaGiramondi]

To be fair Hamilton did say he didn't like simulators in 2021, then proceeded to non-scheduled intense simulator sessions before Silverstone 2021 (both qualifying and race) when he saw that the championship was going to be tight, and continued ever

[thesecretcouncil]

When Max bypassed Leclerc in the rain @ Suzuka - Thats a move that he practiced in iRacing to see If it was possible. I think this is a good example that iRacing indeed can help drivers onc the track.

[metamonogatari]

I think at the back-end of 2021 he said he used it a lot more, as he was pushing for the championship in every way. I remember him saying that he did a lot of work in the simulator and working out and working with the engineers to do everything he can

[TheHarrie]

Max actually acknowledges that there's a difference between the sim and real world driving. His logic is that the sim does improve his driving as it helps you train other sensory input compared to real driving, while Hamilton thinks it doesn't help him. Max also says it keeps him as sharp as possible and that racing truly is his life. There was never anything else.

[toonverbruggen]

Also, a lot of young drivers now start in the sim before or together with real racing. It's often talked about how it's easier for sim racers to step into a real car than the other way around - they get a new sense of how the car behaves, real life drivers lose one. But having these other senses work perfectly as well is usually beneficial.

[cloudn]

It could be a generational thing. Seb himself said he had a simulator but wasn’t “focused on a virtual career.” Hamilton and Seb might be the last from that generation. Norris, Russell, Verstappen are from a new generation that concurrently spend a lot of time in the sim and now sets the precedence that all new drivers to be good on the sim.

[megusta]

max is a sim racer and plays sim games all day its like a hobby for him that's why he doesn't mind doing it.