Lewis Hamilton was "quite unhappy" at the start of his Formula 1 career

He told He told GQ's annual Creativity Issue: "When I first got into Formula 1, it was wake up, train, racing-racing-racing-racing, nothing else. There's no space for anything else.

"But what I realised is that just working all the time doesn't bring you happiness, and you need to find a balance in life. And I found out that I was actually quite unhappy.

"There was so much missing, there was so much more to me. And it was crazy, because I was like: I'm in Formula 1, I reached my dream, and I'm where I always wanted to be, I'm on top, I'm fighting for the championship. But I was just not - it was not enjoyable."

He added: "It's almost like being in a snowglobe - that's the racing world. And there's so much more outside of it that you just don't have time to explore."

Lewis went on to explain his desire to experience more of life led him to explore his passion for music, fashion and films and he hopes to dive into these industries more when he eventually retires from racing.

He added of his side projects: "I went through this phase of understanding that I can't race forever. Because when I stop, I'm gonna drop the mic and be happy ...

"I think it's gonna be film and fashion [when I retired from racing."

Read the full story 'Lewis Hamilton is Changing Lanes' by Daniel Riley in GQ's April issue and on GQ.com.