Lewis Hamilton has admitted that his mind wasn't fully centred on the world championship campaign last season, a mistake he will look to put right in 2012.

The McLaren driver ended a disappointing season fifth in the drivers' rankings and the Brit believes that this can in part be put down to his interests away from the track.

"Last year quite a lot of times I went out and enjoyed myself thinking that these things don't affect you but in actual fact they do, they have a knock-on effect," said the 27-year-old.

"It takes you two days to recover, you miss two days of training and your mind is somewhere else when you get to the race.

"It's the amount of travel you do, choosing the right time to travel, the right place at the right time, ahead of time. Going out to Australia and China early, to make sure I get there in plenty of time. Those kind of things."

Hamilton will be hoping for a quickfire start when the new season gets underway in Australia a week today.