In a surprise move, Lewis Hamilton has blamed his relative lack of form in 2010 on issues away from the race track.

The Englishman, who finished the season fourth in the Drivers' Championship, having won three races, went into the final rounds with a chance of taking his second title. And while he was almost always good value for money - certainly for those that like seeing drivers race - a number of unforced errors and an overall lack of consistency saw Hamilton miss out despite a run of strong finishes at the end of the year.

Controversially, before the season had even begun, the English youngster opted to drop his father as his manager however, a move that took many within the paddock by surprise. Furthermore, after splitting with his girlfriend, pop singer Nicole Sherzinger, the two were an item again just a couple of races later. However, in an interview with BBC Radio One, the McLaren driver, while failing to say what exactly it was, admits that unhappiness in his personal life affected his racing.

"The personal life, the way things have gone have not been as smooth and as happy as they could have been in the past and to do what I do is a combination of many, many things that are surrounding you," he said. "It's not just arriving at the race track and driving, it's your appearances, it's your mood swings, it's the people that are around you - your family and your friends - and the time that you are able to give to them and the relationship that you have with them.

"As soon as some of those things are off - and you've not got all those pieces of the puzzle in place - then it makes it very hard to do other aspects of your life as easily," he continued. "The key I think to life is getting all those pieces of the puzzle in place."

While not going into specifics, when asked about his relationship with Sherzinger, Hamilton indicated that all is well, referring to her as "my girl".

Looking ahead to the new season, Hamilton said he aims to be more relaxed in order that - in terms of his racing - he can be more focussed.

"My plan right now is to smooth everything off and make sure that next year I am 100 percent clear in my mind and have no outside intrusions mentally," he said.

"It's been a long time since I finished out of the top three of a championship in my career," he continued. "Finishing fourth is not something that I'm not particularly proud of. We had a solid couple of bad races where I lost points which would have put me in a much stronger position to compete for the championship at the end of the year and really just throughout the year in general."