Jenson Button has reminded Lewis Hamilton to ensure he completes his F1 “homework” by making use of Ferrari’s simulator, despite a vow made in Miami.
After a disappointing weekend in Miami, Hamilton revealed that he felt Ferrari’s simulator at Maranello had set him on the wrong course and put him on the back foot in terms of set-up to team-mate Charles Leclerc on the Sprint weekend – where there are just 60 minutes of practice before the first parc ferme begins for Sprint qualifying.
Hamilton suggested that he would cut the simulator out of his preparations for Montreal – a race he has won seven times – but not since 2019 for Mercedes, but his former team-mate Jenson Button believes getting “lost” in the simulator is not an excuse to abandon the tool completely.
“First of all, Lewis moving to Ferrari was super exciting last year, but it was a really tough year for him, as you would expect, really,” Button told Sky Sports News.
“He was coming from a team that he’s been with for a very long time, won multiple world championships with, and jumping into a new team that is not just different, but it is Italian, which your team-mate speaks, and you don’t.
“But this year, I have to say, from the word go, he seems a lot more confident in himself, a lot more confident in the people that he is working with, but the last couple of races haven’t been easy for him.
“Sometimes, you can get a little bit lost in the simulator, going down the wrong direction, but you still need to do it, though; there’s homework that needs to be done away from the track.
“But I think Lewis will turn up with a lot of confidence in Montreal, we want to see Ferrari at the front, we want to see Lewis fighting for wins, especially in Montreal, a circuit he loves so much.”
