3. Consistency
With this being Lewis' 6th season in Formula One, he now understands that in order to finish first, first you have to finish. Over the years, Hamilton has been criticised many times for his aggressive driving style and not seeing the bigger picture when it comes to the championship. The 2011 season in particular was noted for Lewis' on track incidents, notably with Ferrari's Felipe Massa. He was given a 20-second time penalty at the end of the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix for excessive weaving whilst defending his position from Fernando Alonso, dropping him from 7th on the road to 8th behind the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi. In Monaco, Lewis inexplicably collided with Massa at the Grand Hotel Hairpin and was given a drive-through penalty. Following a restart after a red flag, he sent Pastor Maldonado's Williams into the barrier which was subsequently followed up with another 20-second time penalty. In Canada, Hamilton tried to pass his team-mate Jenson Button on the home straight, but due to poor visibility due to wet weather conditions, Jenson was not able to see Lewis in his rear view mirror and ended up colliding with each other. Due to suspected suspension damage, Lewis retired from the race whilst Jenson went on to win from Sebastian Vettel. Subsequent incidents followed. In Hungary, he was given a drive-through for sending Paul di Resta's Force India onto the grass and in Belgium failed to finish the Grand Prix following a collision with Kobayashi's Sauber. Hamilton again was involved in collisions with Massa in Singapore, Japan and in the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. In this race, Lewis had already been demoted 3 places on the starting grid due to a yellow flag infraction during qualifying. It has been of the utmost importance to the British driver that a repeat of 2011 must be avoided. The only non-point scoring finishes of 2012 has come in Germany after his car was damaged following a puncture and in Valencia where Lewis was taken out by Williams' Pastor Maldonado in the closing stages. Hamilton himself has states that he must continue to score points to have any chance of winning the World Championship, and this approach has meant that he goes into the second half of the season only 47 points behind the leader, Fernando Alonso. With 25 points for a win he really needs to keep up this consistency.
4. Development
McLaren are a team who are reknowned for developing their cars throughout the season. In 2009, for example, the MP4-24 was more than 1.5 seconds off the pace of the leaders and in spite of a ban of in-season testing, Hamilton recovered later in the season to win the Hungarian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, due to the dominance of the Brawn team as well as the rising of the Red Bull team, McLaren were unable to make up for the deficit. With the McLaren already in a very promising position going into the 2nd half of the season, Lewis will be hoping that his team can develop and deliver that extra performance to give him the push to challenge for this year's championship. Given the right tools, there are few stronger than Lewis in delivering the results.