Hamilton feels like an F1 prisoner

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The 24-year-old has had a turbulent start to his career since his rookie season in 2007, and this year he has been embroiled in the "lie-gate" affair after being accused of misleading stewards following the Australian Grand Prix.

"I want to be a driver - I am not in the sport to be a politician," he told The Times. "It's got to be a similar feeling to anyone who goes to jail but feels they shouldn't be behind bars."

He added: "That is the feeling I have had, although I know what happened in Australia was wrong."

Before Australia there was the "spy-gate" scandal which led to a £65million fine for McLaren for stealing information from Ferrari, and Hamilton is finding it difficult to accept these brushes with officialdom.

To compound Hamilton's woes, McLaren are off the pace this term, and the world champion was heavily critical of his car during the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona last weekend.

"I just feel knocked out by it all," Hamilton added. "I used to enjoy Formula One and part of that has been taken away from me.

"I never imagined it would be so much politics when I came into Formula One. It definitely was a shock. There has been too much time taken up with it.

"Unfortunately, it is the way the Formula One world works for some reason. It's much nicer in the lower categories, where all the people are there just to race and the teams are there just to race."

Hamilton, whose hopes of defending his world champion title this season are extremely slim, added: "It hasn't affected my driving. I won't allow anything to affect my driving. But it affects your life, it affects the way you are."