Hamilton rubbishes claim that girlfriend ordered him to sack dad

British Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has dismissed reports that his Pussycat Doll girlfriend ordered him to sack his dad Anthony as manager.

“That's complete rubbish. It was me who initiated it. I think Dad took it well. He tried to take it as a dad. But he will miss coming to races,” News of the World quoted Hamilton, 25, as saying.

The former world champ announced the shock decision of splitting with his dad soon after rekindling his romance with dumped pop star girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger.

But Hamilton insists he wants a proper dad-son relationship with Anthony.

"It is something that we had both been looking at for a long time. He has started to take on quite a lot of his own things and he want to be success in a different way in his own life," he said.

Hamilton flew to Los Angeles to visit Nicole last weekend before making the long flight back to the Middle East.

"It was brilliant. I had a really nice weekend. We went out a couple of times, watched the Alice in Wonderland movie and just chilled. Sometimes you need that. I had two hectic weeks of testing and media,” he said.

“The story broke about me and my dad, parting ways. So much had gone on. It was good to switch off, turn my phone off. It was like a different life for a couple of days and coming here I feel better than ever,” he added.