Determined to turn his season around, Lewis Hamilton admits that 2011 has not been a vintage season for him.

Still smarting from the incident that eliminated him from the Belgian Grand Prix - and for which he subsequently tweeted a Mea Culpa - the Englishman recalls that here at Monza twelve months ago he was involved in a first lap clash with Felipe Massa that ended his race before it had begun. The McLaren driver compounded the situation a couple of weeks later with another overambitious move in Singapore that again resulted in retirement.

While there has been brilliance season, there has also been madness, so much so that the 2008 world champion has been a regular in the stewards office.

"It's just one of those years," he told Reporters in Monza. "I think everyone goes through tough times and I'm going through that.

"What can I say?" he continued. "It's the way of life. Good times will come, and people will make less of the bad times. People always remember the bad times over the good times for some reason, but I'm here to try and put things right and have a much better weekend.

"I guess I'm an easy target at the moment because I'm always in trouble," he added. "Hopefully, at some stage, I'll move away from that spotlight and I'll be in a good light and people will only have good things to say. It feels like it's been a worse year than I've had previously. But in 2008 there were some incidents there as well, but I guess because I won the championship they were forgotten."

Looking ahead to this weekend's big race, the 26-year-old, who has yet to win here, refuses to fall for Red Bull's claim that the legendary circuit doesn't suit its car.

"I'm not really focusing on that," he said. "I'm trying to get back to having some good results so I can stop negative stories being written about me as well.

"I don't read them," he was quick to add. "I just hear there are pretty bad stories that have been written about me so I am thinking it would be good to give you guys something good to write about me. I will continue to drive the way I do. I just try my hardest to stay out of trouble. I'll give people extra room when I overtake them."

Asked about the Spa clash with Kamui Kobayashi, Hamilton says he can remember little of the incident, believing he could actually have been knocked unconscious.

"I don't remember the whole hitting the wall and then how I got to where I was," he said. "I remember trying to go into the corner and getting clipped but after that it's a bit blurry."