Pesky 2021 F1 Tires Keep Lewis Hamilton Away From the Simulator

Lewis Hamilton embarks on a record-breaking campaign that could see him win a record 8th Drivers’ Championship. But, in preparation for this, he has limited simulator work to the bare minimum. 

The Briton has been the best driver since switching to Mercedes ahead of the 2014 season. This has also coincided with Mercedes unlocking the margins within the regulations.

This partnership has been fruitful and has seen an unprecedented dominance likely rivaled by Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s. This could be because of the preparation put in by both sides before the season starts.

Lewis Hamilton, not a big fan of simulators

In an interview, Hamilton revealed that he doesn’t do much simulator work before the season starts. He said, “I don’t really do sim stuff, so I’ve not done a lot of laps in the simulator. I’m guessing I’ve maybe done 30 laps or something like that.”

He explained why saying that the simulator wouldn’t be useful for the new tyre to be used in 2021. The Briton said, “The problem with the sim, for example, is we’ve got a new tyre this year.

“So they can send an idea of what the tyre model is but we won’t know until we get to the track and we test the tyre when we get to Bahrain.

“Then I’ll feed back the information of how the tyre behaves through the corners and we can update the sim. I really need to be here to update it to say, ‘Yes, that’s how it feels at the track’. So right now, it’s a kind of guesstimate of what the tyre might feel like.”

That combined with the new aerodynamic regulations wouldn’t help on the sim. He said, “The aero package has shifted. That, combined with those tyres, I don’t like to take too much from it.”

What to expect from the Silver Arrows in 2021?

The German team launched its car for 2021 season on March 3rd. This saw the team going for a radical livery change. But with the car looking good, can it perform on the track?

There have been murmurs behind the scenes regarding troubles with the power unit. It faced a familiar problem last season when winter testing came around. But the season got delayed and gave them sufficient time to rectify it.

Mercedes are hoping that they are able to have a top-notch power unit by the time the 2021 season lights go out.