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McLaren seeking consistency - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton said his fourth place in Turkey was "a realistic result...it could've been worse" © Getty Images

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Lewis Hamilton says that McLaren are looking to score points consistently this season rather than taking too many risks with its car development.

Having been off the pace initially in pre-season testing, McLaren gambled ahead of the first grand prix in Australia by completely revising its exhaust system and floor. The move paid off as it became the closest challenger to Red Bull, and even won in China. After a less competitive weekend in Turkey, however, Hamilton said that the team would be looking to score points on a regular basis.

"As always, we're fighting to bring lots of new parts to the track, and it isn't always possible to run them - either from a performance or reliability point of view," Hamilton told his official website. "Even before first practice, we knew we were going to have to scale back our ambitions on the development front for this particular race.

"Of course, that's disappointing but you have to look at the bigger picture: the championship will be won through consistency, so it's better to score points with a decent result than risk a non-finish through a reliability failure despite having greater performance."

Hamilton said that he was enjoying the close racing that was occurring as a result of the new rules this season, even recreating the fight he had with his own team-mate Jenson Button last year.

"We respect each other both as drivers and people; and I know that, when I'm racing Jenson, it'll always be clean and fair - he's a driver you can really depend on in a close situation. It was good to have a little battle with him - but last year, too, it was for first position; this year, we were only fighting for the minor placings so it wasn't as much fun.

"Still, I enjoy racing with KERS Hybrid and DRS - it makes it more entertaining for the drivers and the fans. I think anything that makes the racing more exciting should be applauded - and we've definitely had four interesting races so far this year. Sure, you don't always win - and sometimes the system actually works against you, because it can make you vulnerable when you're the car in front - but, in general, I like the new rule-changes this year."

Hamilton also said that the resurgence of Ferrari and Mercedes had come as no surprise, and that he hoped they would help prevent Sebastian Vettel from building an unassailable lead in the championship.

"At the start of the season, we certainly expected Ferrari and Mercedes GP to be competitive - and, even when they couldn't quite deliver on their winter testing performance in the first three races, we knew it was only a matter of time before they got back into their stride. So seeing their pace at Turkey wasn't a surprise - it was actually more of a surprise that they hadn't shown it since the start of the season.

"Having more teams in the fight works both ways - it makes it harder to score good points if you've got lots of other drivers taking points off each other, but on the flipside, it should make it harder for anyone to decisively pull ahead in the points table - which was something we saw last year. It didn't work out for us in Turkey but I'm already looking ahead to Barcelona - it's a circuit where I've never won, so it would be a great boost for the team if we can get a great result there next week."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.