Lewis Hamilton says he does not read the papers. This must be true. How else can you explain his demeanour as he faced the press at the launch of his book, Lewis Hamilton: My Story, yesterday?

The British Formula One driver looked like a man fresh from a three-hour yoga session rather than one who has been the subject of sneers and sarcasm over his decision to leave behind his fans in the United Kingdom and live in Switzerland. But if Hamilton does not pay attention to the media, then someone has to on his behalf.

That man will be Matt Bishop, who has been poached from his role as editor-in-chief of a motor racing magazine and will, come January, be installed as head of communications and public relations at the McLaren Group. The first duty for Bishop must be to impose a structure to the juggernaut that is Hamilton’s public persona to prevent a repeat of the fiasco that has led to the 22-year-old stating that he needs to escape Britain to avoid the constant recognition – only then to appear on ITV’s National Television Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Hamilton appeared to be trapped by the choice of Switzerland. It made him appear like a man on a tax dodge and, to avoid looking miserly, he made the mistake of seeming antisocial. He has, not surprisingly, been criticised. “Have I? I don’t know,” he said. But he is puzzled if there has been a negative reaction. “I’m always surprised because I just never expect anyone to pay any attention to what I’m doing.”

That, then, must be lesson No 1 when he sits down with Bishop: everyone is interested in everything Hamilton does all the time – especially if it affects the Great British Public.

“I love my fans; not only in the UK, but all around the world,” Hamilton said. “I love making people happy. It gives me great pleasure to have someone come up to me and ask me for a picture or an autograph. It’s a great feeling for anyone. There’s no doubt in my mind that I love my fans and I love spending as much time as I can with them. I’m at a point in my life where I have an opportunity to see the world and I’ve chosen Switzerland. For me, it’s not a tax issue because I’ve been in England for the past few years and I’ve been paying my taxes and it’s really not an issue – you’d have to ask my management about that.”

It must be something to do with media cynicism; Hamilton, like any young man, wants to fend for himself, that’s all. “There’s no doubt in my mind that in my heart my own home is where my parents live and where I grew up,” he said. “But you can’t live at home all of your life; you’ve got to get out and experience living on your own and cooking for yourself.”

Hamilton’s genius as a driver lies in his ability to learn quickly and react swiftly. It has taken him longer to learn how to navigate the politics of Formula One and fame, but he now says that he has learnt the lessons of his first astonishing season, in which he finished runner-up in the World Championship.

“You have to adjust your character a little bit, as you know I’m very open and tell it how it is,” he said. “Politically, you just have to learn how to say the right things and that can only come with experience. I want to go out and win the World Championship; the other stuff doesn’t really matter. I guess in the past being the best driver was about being the fastest, being able to set your car up properly, but now it’s about being good with speaking, communication. It’s all a new experience; making sure you say the right things to people and that you explain yourself correctly. It’s so important because things get taken out of context and have spin put on it, and it’s not what you said. My fans know I speak from the heart.”

In his book, he states that he could be “a bit naive” and it was easy to say something that could be misinterpreted. Interestingly, he does not pretend to have penned the book and talks in terms of having it written to clarify his story, given that so many other people have their own versions – not, of course, that he has read them. “I haven’t read any of the other books that are out,” he said. “I thought it was important that I got the true story coming from me.

“So much went on this year that I thought it was important I explained from my point of view. It [the book] gives you a clear and smooth understanding of my perception.”

Hamilton’s fans yearned for a fairytale ending that was snatched from them in his final race. “My story is not about luck or a fairytale,” he says in his book, and you suspect he would have said the same thing had he won the title in his rookie season. He denies, however, that he started making errors as the season wore on – “I just got stronger and stronger” – and he promises “we can hit the ground running in race one” when the merry-go-round begins again. “My life has not changed. I do the same things I did the other years,” he said.

In fact, all that has really altered is that he is now bored of his PlayStation. “You can get quite good at it after a while and your fingers start to hurt.” And the public will hurt, too, if they think their hero is rejecting them.