Lewis Hamilton comes to sudden Ferrari realisation after 'miles different' shift

Lewis Hamilton has signalled he is prepared to sacrifice his simulator running for Ferrari after indicating he felt it had set him on the wrong path ahead of Miami Grand Prix qualifying.

Hamilton qualified sixth in Miami, but felt that his SF-26 had made a drastic improvement from the Sprint where he laboured to seventh and from Friday's Sprint Qualifying session. 

During the April break, he was busy in the simulator at Maranello, but the seven-time champion felt that he cut out the time as it had pushed him in the wrong direction on set-up before the reversal heading into qualifying.

 "It was an improvement, and we made lots of changes to the car; we didn't have software issues, so I think we progressed," Hamilton explained to media, including RacingNews365. 

"We stepped forward. I think Q2 was really solid, and then when I got to Q3, I wasn't able to extract the maximum. 

"I don't feel comfortable in the top six, it is not where I want to be, so naturally, I am not happy, but I'm happy that we made changes going into qualifying, we progressed, and I think the top three was probably impossible.

"But if I could, I would start with what I had [in qualifying] on Friday, and have that practice of driving the car as it was [on Saturday], because it was miles different from the Sprint and from Friday.

"So I really need to dig deep on that. If I'm honest, I think the simulator really sent me in the wrong direction, so I think I might cut that out. 

"I'm expecting the car tomorrow to feel a lot better, but it is going to be wet, so I'm confident that with the balance I had, in the wet, hopefully we should be in a good place."