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Hamilton Snr says he stayed too long as Lewis' manager

Anthony Hamilton: "It just didn't happen quite the way I would have wanted." © Sutton Images

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Anthony Hamilton has admitted he should have stepped down as his son's manager a year earlier, after the pair's difficult split at the start of 2010.

The father and son duo had been together since Lewis was in karts, with Hamilton Snr carefully steering his son's path to Formula One. However, 12 months ago their professional relationship came to a well-publicised end, leading to a schism in their personal lives as they reportedly stopped talking for several months.

But Anthony says the break-up was not as poisonous as some of the headlines suggested.

"It wasn't like that," he told the Daily Telegraph. "The desire to go our separate ways was mutual. We had discussed it for ages. It just didn't happen quite the way I would have wanted."

But he admits, with the benefit of hindsight, that it would have been better to step a year earlier.

"I stayed a year too long," he added. "It was my biggest mistake. I knew it had got to the point where he had his life the way he wanted it; the world title, his own girlfriend, his own money. The problem was the 2009 car was no good. I didn't want to leave when things were going badly. I did the dad thing. What I'm trying to say is that when 2010 happened it was a good thing for both of us. I'm trying to take life a little easier now."

He also denied that Lewis' relationship with pop star Nicole Scherzinger played a significant part in the break-up.

"I don't think so," he said. "It was more a combination of factors of which that long-distance relationship was one. Again that was about growing up; about Lewis making his own decisions. I respect that. Anyway, fortunately I don't get involved in any of that any more. I don't pry into his private life. What I can say is that Lewis has been one of the greatest sons a parent could ever ask for and Nicole is a really, really great girl. She is good for him."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.