"It's transformed the car" - Lewis Hamilton "in the fight" as Ferrari F1 tweaks hailed

Lewis Hamilton says his Ferrari SF-26 has been “transformed” for the Canadian Grand Prix after optimising the package introduced last time out in Miami.

While some teams introduced major upgrades in the United States, followed by smaller changes in Montreal, Ferrari has added no further parts for this weekend's event and instead opted to optimise its existing package.

Having made a point of not using the Ferrari simulator in his preparations, Hamilton was delighted by setup changes that worked wonders, with the seven-time champion fastest in SQ1 and second in SQ2, and despite slipping back to fifth in the final reckoning, he was pleased with how the session unfolded.

“Probably the best qualifying session we've had for some time, and just really great work with the engineers,” he said. “Setup changes, the car felt really fantastic from P1, and we made just subtle changes going into its quali.

“P1 and P2, it was looking good, and then I don't know why the others are able to turn up a little bit more – I don't know.

“But I'm just happy to be there in the fight, I was having so much fun out there. And also the fact that I didn't do the sim, and I feel like it's the best I've felt all year. So I think that's the way forward for me.”

Hamilton said the time available by not running in the sim allowed him to focus on offline preparations.

“Yeah, we worked really hard sifting through the data the last couple of weeks, and I found that so much more beneficial,” he said. 

“One, I was able to then just focus on training and not be distracted, and then the second part is just like really going through a fine comb with ride stability, through corner balances and mechanical balance.

“And I chose a setup that we've not used – we never used it actually before – so it's transformed the car for me. So I hope that bodes well for the rest of the weekend."