Lewis Hamilton faces three more races in Japan, China and Brazil to complete the job he failed to do by a single point last year, and McLaren have indicated that they are prepared to change their strategy in order to sew up the title.
Previously the team’s philosophy has been to win as many races as possible, hoping that the championship would follow. Now they have decided to take a more measured approach, as evidenced by Hamilton’s tactical run to third place behind Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg in Sunday’s Singapore grand prix.
“I think an inherent weakness in the team and Lewis last year was the overwhelming desire to win the race at almost any risk,” said Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren’s chief operating officer.
“That is more forgivable in Lewis - you would like to have that in a young racing driver. We as a team should have been more disciplined than we were. Like here we didn’t win but came away with more points than we thought, but if you scout around you will not see the euphoria that we ought to have, given the actual results.
Lewis Hamilton insists there will be no change in his approach for the final three races of the season despite seeing his World Championship lead increase to seven points after his third-place finish at the historic Singapore Grand Prix.
“The first night race in Formula One history was great fun and I am looking forward to the forthcoming double-header in Japan and China,” said Hamilton. “We will approach the next few races exactly the same as we have this one. I have no doubts we have a competitive package to compete with them (Ferrari) but without a doubt it will be a tough battle.”
“It wasn’t brilliant,” Hamilton said of his performance in Formula One’s first night race. “Winning would have been good, but I felt I was a bit unlucky. I was stuck behind David Coulthard and hoped my fellow Brit might help me out, but he was in the points and wanted a good result.
“Regardless, we scored good points and we’re back to where we were after Spa. We’re moving on and have to approach the final three races in the same way. We kept our cool as a team. There wasn’t one point on the track where I nearly lost it, even when I was behind David. I just kept it on the track and we did a really solid job.”
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