[We did] a lot of deep diving on through-corner balance, mechanical balance, corner approaches, brake balance, optimising the brakes, which have been a problem for me for some time.
That’s led to really good integration with my engineers,” said Hamilton.
He left open the possibility of using virtual tools for power management configurations in the future.
“I’m not saying I’m never going to use it again,” said Hamilton.
The driver pointed out that post-race correlation work remains part of his regular workload.
“I think it’s something that, for sure, we’ll continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton concluded that tracking data directly yielded his most successful performances of 2026.
“But often what I’ve done for the last six months, you’d go in after the weekend and you’d work on correlation, but then you go to the next track and it’s slightly off sometimes.
So, we’ll see how the weekend goes.
But in China, for example, I didn’t do the sim for China and it was my best weekend,” said Hamilton.
Leclerc Struggles with Brakes
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc qualified sixth after experiencing ongoing handling difficulties under braking throughout Friday's sessions.
“Honestly on my side, I kind of expected it – I haven’t been at ease with the car,” said Leclerc.
Leclerc expressed concern over vehicle stability when entering corners at the Montreal circuit.
“I’m really struggling with the brakes on my side of the garage for some reason so we need to look into it, try to find something for tomorrow, otherwise it’s going to be a very long weekend because on the brakes, I get into the corners hoping that I don’t end up going straight,” said Leclerc.
