The Woking-based team head into the upcoming Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix with their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sitting first and second in the points standings.

McLaren therefore also lead the Constructors' Championship, but Whitmarsh still believes his team has made an "imperfect" start to the season.

Button's tangle with Narain Karthikeyan in Malaysia and Hamilton's five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change in China potentially cost the team even better results, and Whitmarsh says cutting out such incidents will be crucial with the field so closely matched this year.

"To have left China leading the constructors' championship, first and second in the drivers', is a reasonable start to the year," Whitmarsh said.

"That race was a great one for the fans, and I think we've a great championship on our hands here - three different winners and three very different races so far this year.

Not dominating

"Sadly, we're not dominating, but fortunately no one else is, so this has to be a season where you limit mistakes, you have to deliver.

"You also have to be able to overtake on the circuit as we saw in China. You can't just do it through strategy and pit stops."

Although Mercedes' Nico Rosberg ran away with victory last time out in Shanghai, just 22 seconds covered Button in second place down to Force India's Paul di Resta in 12th.

Whitmarsh added: "This is going to be a season where you have to take your chances.

"It's sufficiently close where you have to deal with traffic. If you're running a strategy you can't always drop drivers into clear air having opened a gap.

"You are being forced to drop drivers into traffic, and they've got to do their job, they've got to overtake on the circuit.

"Look at how many cars our drivers had to overtake. It was very difficult. But if you can get yourself into a position where you can control the race like Nico did, then it's a big advantage."