Lewis Hamilton got inside the head of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in Canada as Hamilton recorded his best grand prix result yet with Ferrari.<\/p>\n
That is the claim of former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, who referred to Leclerc\u2019s blunt self-assessment after qualifying. Hamilton<\/a> outqualified Leclerc twice and raced on to P2 at the Canadian Grand Prix, crossing the line 30 seconds up the road from the Monegasque driver.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Canada performance impacted Charles Leclerc, says Rob Smedley<\/p>\n Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Hamilton has won the Canadian Grand Prix a record-equalling seven times. There was to be no eighth victory, but he did finish second, winning out in a battle with former title rival Max Verstappen to secure that runner-up result.<\/p>\n Much of the momentum has gone Leclerc\u2019s way thus far in the Hamilton versus Leclerc intra-team battle at Ferrari. Canada did not follow that narrative.<\/p>\n Hamilton had the edge over Leclerc throughout the race weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s one of, if not the worst weekend of my career,\u201d Leclerc bluntly stated after qualifying eighth, a tenth and three positions down on Hamilton.<\/p>\n Leclerc went on to finish the race P4, albeit over half a minute behind Hamilton, adding that his result was \u201cmuch better\u201d than the feeling he had in the car.<\/p>\n Leclerc\u2019s comments were addressed by Smedley, while speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast.<\/p>\n Hamilton landed a psychological blow on Leclerc in Montreal, according to Smedley.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s always brought something special around Montreal,\u201d Smedley said of Hamilton.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was quicker than Charles. That got inside Charles\u2019 head, because all of a sudden he started to claim that he\u2019d had the worst weekend of his career in Formula 1.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, I think if Lewis had been three places further back, I wouldn\u2019t have thought that Charles would have referred to his weekend as being the worst of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton denies Antonelli \u2018pointers\u2019 as key Toto Wolff impact spotted<\/a><\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton pinpoints F1 2026 \u2018weird feeling\u2019 in V8 comparison<\/a><\/p>\n Hamilton\u2019s breakthrough Canadian GP came after he decided to pause his use of the Ferrari simulator, arguing that the virtual and real-world car setups were not aligning for him.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole simulator thing, I spoke to a couple of guys there who kind of shrugged their shoulders when I asked about it,\u201d Smedley revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said that he didn\u2019t go to do his work on the simulator pre-Canada, and that\u2019s what gave him the freedom, because he had a notion that the simulator was perhaps dragging him off into directions that he didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n \u201cThen of course, he has a sample of one and all of sudden it\u2019s statistically true that if you don\u2019t go on the simulator, you\u2019re on the podium [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n Hamilton has reduced his deficit to Leclerc in the drivers\u2019 standings<\/a> to three points heading into Leclerc\u2019s home race, the Monaco Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n