McLaren won't repeat 'inexcusable' errors

McLaren have told Lewis Hamilton that there will be no repeat of the 'inexcusable' mistakes they made at the end of last year as they bid to win their first world title in almost a decade

Hamilton extended his lead in the drivers' championship to seven points with a run to third place in the Singapore Grand Prix on a day when Ferrari failed to score any points.

And although their failure to win F1's first night race left team members and Hamilton feeling a bit flat afterwards, McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh thinks their more conservative attitude to races will pay off in the end.

"It is a good result," said Whitmarsh, whose team saw Hamilton lose the drivers' championship last year despite a 17-point cushion over eventual winner Kimi Raikkonen with two races to go.

"We have got to pump ourselves up, because when you don't win it is difficult to be euphoric about it. But being absolutely realistic, if I had believe on the way in here this morning that we would go away with a seven point lead in the drivers' championship and a one point lead in the constructors', I would have snatched it with both hands.

"Perhaps it is a weakness in our team. We were really trying to rein ourselves and Lewis back. When you are barrelling up on someone like Nico Rosberg at one second per lap we think: 'we can do that!' But then you think hold on. It is just this frame of mind that causes us some difficulty.

"If we criticise ourselves for last year, it was we didn't have that discipline. We wanted to win and we pushed too hard when we didn't need to - and championships aren't won like that. Arguably last year was an example of that. And while it is excusable for Lewis in his first year, it was not excusable for us as a team."

Whitmarsh believes that Hamilton too has taken on board what happened last year, which is why he accepted to take things easy in his fight for a podium finish.

"Lewis was deeply frustrated behind David Coulthard," said Whitmarsh. "David was entitled to race that way and it cost Lewis a second a lap. In yesteryear he would have got past quite a bit earlier, or slid off the circuit after interlocking wheels!

"He took a very mature approach, got past him in the end just before a stop - and I think he has learned. He is a smart guy."