Tewin Displaying none of his son's sure touch in handling a car, Anthony Hamilton, the father of the Formula One driver Lewis, careered into a children's playground yesterday 200 metres from his home.

A witness said that Mr Hamilton tried in vain to reverse the high-performance Porsche, right, back on to the 30mph road near Tewin, Hertfordshire, but succeeded only in raising dirt and his blood pressure.

“He was really trying to get it out of there,” the bystander said. “In the end his wife walked back to the house and picked him up in another car. She came back a couple of times but we never saw him again. He was really embarrassed.”

Mr Hamilton is a driving force behind his son and gave up his own career at British Rail to take three jobs to keep his son on his path to the top.

He claimed recently to be the brains behind his son's controversial decision to move to Switzerland for tax purposes.

“It was entirely my idea. I always said to him that, if he started to make any money, he would have to move abroad,” he said in February.

Police were called to the site of the crash yesterday to manage traffic disruption. No one was injured in the incident.