Consistency the key, says Hamilton

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton claims the 2012 season is wide open and that the teams that show the most consistency will prosper.

Speaking in the FIA Thursday press conference ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton expressed surprise at his three third places having lifted him to the top of the championship table but went on to argue that consistency is always vital in an F1 campaign. “The target every year I think is to have consistency and sometimes it just doesn’t go to plan but this year I think we’ve been quite fortunate. Finishing on the podium for the first three races has been fantastic for us.”

When asked which of his rivals he believes to be the biggest threat, the McLaren driver demurred, saying the situation isn’t yet particularly clear-cut. “It is very difficult to say. You know, when you look at qualifying we’re competitive there, Mercedes is now the quickest but it’s quite close between a lot of the cars, but in race pace then you look at the Red Bull being very quick, the Mercedes is very quick, we are quick, even Sauber is quick. It’s a real mixture at the moment and it’s just about trying to stay consistent and trying to maximise every opportunity you have.”

Tyre management, claimed Lewis, is a big factor in determining the finishing order, though the 2008 World Champion argued this is no different to the situation last year. “I don’t think they’re much more important than in the past,” he said. “I think last year we had similar tyre degradation and we had to manage the tyres in a similar way. If you look at the last race the people on a two-stop were slow at the end of the race and people on three stop were overtaking them. It was the same last year – that’s how I won the race. This year the tyre window, the working range is slightly narrower than it was last year, which is making it a little more difficult for people to warm-up the tyres in qualifying, for example. It is a little more challenging but it’s providing good racing.”