Lewis Hamilton took time out from a disappointing Formula One season today to urge others to follow his lead and reduce their speed.

The world champion has seen his title slip from his grasp in an uncompetitive car and now he is urging others to join him in the slow lane. Hamilton claimed he was a reformed driver who used to speed on public roads but now always obeyed the limit after realising he could kill someone.

The 24-year-old was speaking to The Times at the launch of a campaign to prevent five million roads deaths globally over the next decade. He urged young people not to try to copy his racetrack skills when out on the road.

“The speed limit is there for a reason and I think everyone should stick to it," he said. "I do.

“Everyone has made mistakes, even myself in my past. But you learn lessons from this. When you are more aware of the implications of your actions, you take more care.

“When you are on a race circuit the target is to be as fast as you can, but away from the circuit you slip into your every day life and on the roads it’s all about safety.”

He said he understood the peer pressure on young people to drive fast because he himself had experienced such pressure.

In December 2007, Hamilton was banned from driving for one month in France after being caught there doing 123mph in his Mercedes CLK on an autoroute with an 80mph limit.

"The message I would try and send out to those people is take a step back and think before you act. You could easily make a mistake and lose your friend’s life or your own life. It’s not about racing on the roads, it’s about being sensible and making the right decisions. If you want to have fun go to a go-kart circuit.

“On the roads it’s not just you out there - you have oncoming traffic, you have people crossing the road and you may have passengers.”

Hamilton said it was hard to explain why car companies, which claimed to be concerned about road safety, continued to build cars capable of speeds far in excess of the 70mph maximum limit. He said future cars powered by electricity could be much less powerful and unable to exceed the 70mph limit.

Hamilton is supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign which is seeking to cut global roads deaths from 1.3million last year to 900,000 by 2020. With car ownership rising rapidly in developing countries, road deaths are also growing fast and currently on course to reach 1.9million by 2020.

Hamilton is backing a proposals for a “decade of action” to halve the number of fatalities by 2020. This would save about five million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries.

The campaign is urging governments around the world to commit to investing more than £180 million to prevent road deaths in poorer countries.

Road crashes are on course to become the leading cause of disability and premature death for five to 14-year-olds by 2015, according to projections by the World Health Organisation.