“I thought about it numerous times,” he confesses as we sit down in the bar of the Intercontinental Park Lane
“I didn’t want my words to be twisted into something negative. I find a lot of reporting can be destructive but I want to be positive in my life. If I’ve got anything to say, it must be positive.”
Those words reveal the essence of Formula One's most famous father of recent years; anxious, intense, guarded, but at the same time deeply caring and clearly possessed of an overwhelming urge to set a good example to others.
He gets over his initial reservations rather well. One hour turns into three as we discuss the projects he has on the go, his work helping young drivers stay on the straight and narrow. It turns out Hamilton Snr has chilled out.
We talk about the burden of responsibility he feels when families sell their houses and move abroad in the hope that their boy will be the next Lewis Hamilton. “I know of at least five people who have done that,” he says, shaking his head. “If I know five, there must be 500 more.” Mention of Lewis brings up the elephant in the hotel’s bar.
We both know it is this subject which Hamilton is so cautious about; understandably so. Their split 12 months ago after nearly 20 years as driver-manager was a uniquely painful episode in both their lives.
Although painted as amicable to start with, it later emerged the break-up had been nothing of the sort. Lewis sacks Dad ran the headlines. “It wasn’t like that,” Anthony says. “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.” After years of symbiosis, the pair went months without talking as the strain of going cold turkey told.
Anthony has not spoken about this period in his life before. In fact, this is his first interview since the split with Lewis. The last thing he wants to do now that they are back on good terms is to rock the boat.
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