Even though a real Formula 1 simulator is nothing like your gaming console, according to reigning champ Lewis Hamilton you won’t necessarily learn more from it.

If you’re racing in Formula 1, you basically know you’ll be spending a lot of time in the simulator, more so even when you’re about to go out on a track that nobody has ever raced on. With the new Baku street circuit open for business this weekend, both Lewis as well as his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg had to take to the virtual realm in order to become acquainted with it.

“I don’t drive the simulator a lot because it’s not at its best at the moment – we’re working on trying to make it better,” said the reigning F1 champion after admitting to only driving 8 laps in the sim ahead of this weekend’s European Grand Prix.

“I don’t do a lot of time in simulators. When I was at McLaren we did way too much. I could spend £100 on a PlayStation and learn the same amount,” added the British driver while quoted by Autosport.

“There’s a difference between driving a simulator and driving the real thing – you have no emotion. When you get into the simulator you have to adjust yourself to the simulator, and when you get in the car you don’t adjust to it, you drive.”

Hamilton clarified that it’s your feelings you have to adjust in the simulator and that you don’t get “the same movements, the same bumps,” as you do when you’re actually out on the track – which indeed we can understand why it would basically blur the line between professional grade racing sim and a simple steering wheel & pedal set-up on a regular gaming console.

“You drive the same track the day before and on Monday you drive the simulator and the bumps aren’t there, the speed is different. You don’t feel the speed, you don’t feel the physicality of it. The engineers learn more from the fuel usage, the power usage and aerodynamics.”

Interestingly enough, Hamilton doesn’t like to walk circuits either, a common practice among most F1 teams.

“I’ve walked around circuits since Formula Renault to probably my third or fourth year in F1 and it made zero difference to my weekend. I’ve not walked a track since 2010 and it made zero difference. It might work for others, but for me it doesn’t.”

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