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It was the moment when the wheels came off one of the most ­famous partnerships in Grand Prix history.

Anthony Hamilton still remembers only too well how he felt when Formula One hero Lewis – the son whose glittering career he had nurtured from childhood – sacked him as his manager.

“It was a nightmare. It was like something had died. I was shocked, devastated,” says Anthony, opening his heart to the Sunday Mirror for the first time on the split that stunned the motor racing world.

“When he said he no longer wanted me as manager it came completely out of the blue because we hadn’t fallen out.

“I didn’t get angry – but I didn’t deal with it very well.

“I’d been at his side from his first remote-control car race when he was five. Every week, week-in week-out, I’d put my life into it. That day was a life-changing experience.”

Today Anthony, 51, has ­decided to tell his story as his eldest son lands in Australia to prepare for the new Formula One season.

He wants to put the record straight as Lewis, 27, tries to rediscover the glory days he enjoyed with his dad by his side, culminating in his one and only World Drivers Championship in 2008.

And the one rumour he’s determined to put the brakes on for good is that his son’s girlfriend, ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, 33, told the smitten lad to grow up and give his dad the elbow.

“I don’t believe for one minute she would ever say to Lewis ‘fire your father, make your own decisions’,” Anthony says firmly.

“I’m sure she would actually encourage him to contact me, not the other way about.

“She is a loving, respectful, very family-orientated individual. We know each other extremely well. She’s stayed here several times and had dinner with us. She’s got strong bonds with her family and is part of this family.”

Now the dust has settled on the Hamiltons’ very ­public break-up, Anthony looks back on their parting from the point of view of a loving dad rather thana devoted manager.

“Lewis was right to go his own way,” he says, gazing out across the back garden of the Hertfordshire family home where his eldest son once played with brother Nic, now 20 and also a racing driver.

“Was it right the way it happened? Probably not. If I’d had my way it would have been done ­differently. But it is what it is.

(Image: Anglia Press Agency)

"And I can honestly say we have both become better people for it. It had to happen at some stage. One would have had to say to the other, ‘I’m leaving you’. And it wasn’t ­going to be me. I was so focused.I couldn’t think about anything ­except Lewis’s career.”

His entire life had revolved around his son’s passion to get behind the wheel, from the ­Christmas when he bought him his first go-kart at the age of six.

“At one time I juggled four jobs to bring in the money for family and racing,” says Anthony.

“I’d leave home at five each morning to go to work and be back home by nine at night.

“I even had a job putting up boards for estate agents for 50p a time, often in the dark.

“So I was thinking ‘what do I do now?’ All I knew was following my son and doing the best for him.

“Afterwards I realised maybe I held some things too close tome and I should have let him make more decisions. But I only didit because I wanted him to beable to totally focus on his racing.”

Lewis achieved his dream at top speed and at 23 became the youngest driver ever to win the World Championship. Two years later, well into his mid-20s, he was no longer dependent on his dad.

And Anthony reveals he, too, was starting to feel the professional bond between them loosen.

“I wasn’t enjoying it, and maybe he wasn’t but we couldn’t find the way to say it to each other,” he says. “I’d had sleepless nights thinking how I was going to tell him I’m not coming any more.”

But it is still hard for him to talk about their professional split – because the love between a father and son was at the root of it too.

“Lewis does a dangerous job and I didn’t want there to be that shred of doubt in his mind that I loved him,” says Anthony. “Maybe I would never have got around to it and Lewis doing it probably was a good thing.

“In fact it definitely was a good thing,” he adds, as if reassuring himself. “I think Lewis decided he was going to take a different route in his life. But it felt like the end of an era for me.”

But he learned a lesson from his ­intense experience with Lewis when Nic, a cerebral palsy sufferer, told him he wanted to follow his illustrious brother into motor racing.

“After 18 years of racing with Lewis, when he came to me I thought, ‘No Nic, not you’,” says Anthony. “I wanted him to get a job or go back to university.

“But after all the years he’d followed Lewis without once complaining I thought it was only fair I give him his chance. It’s taken him only a year to prove he can be a racing driver and prove, as a disabled one at that, he can beat able-bodied people.

“I give him leads but I make him chase sponsors himself. What happened with Lewis made me realise I had to learn to pull back. I realised I didn’t know when to let go. I’ve done the best thing for Nic and the hardest thing for me. He’s proved he could make it and I’m so proud.”

Anthony is still in Formula One. He manages promising driver Paul di Resta and his latest project, called 107%, has rich backing for a global search to find two new F1 stars, one male and one female, and even the tentative agreement for two race seats for the F1 in 2014.

But from his new back-seat position in the lives of both of his boys, Anthony looks on with fatherly pride... simply wanting both of them to be happy.

He sees his son Lewis’s determination on the circuit reflected in his relationship with Nicole too. The couple are now back together following their split last year.

“Given all the career pressures they face it’s amazing they are still together,” says Anthony. “What’s clear for me is that they are in love.”

Meanwhile in the background, his own love, Lewis’ stepmum Linda, busies herself about their home.

“She’s fantastic. In the early days she helped me carry his kart down the side of the house and load it into the van. She’s been incredible,” says Anthony.

Now those hard days of helping his boy achieve his dreams are over.

And Anthony says: “After everything that has happened my life is better now. I couldn’t see it then. But I see it now.

“I’ve been a devoted dad but I’vedone my bit.

“And the best present Lewis could give me now is to win another world ­championship.”