Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he is yet to think up a name for his new formula one car.
Last year, the 23-year-old won his first title at the wheel of Randy Mandy, after the original RB6 named Luscious Liz was replaced due to damage after Monaco.

The giving of an amorous female name has become one of the Red Bull driver’s several F1-related superstitions, including the sliding of a lucky coin behind his boot laces.

When asked about his new RB7 wearing the coveted number 1 as it was launched at Valencia on Tuesday, Vettel told Welt newspaper: “The number looks good.

“I saw the car in one piece for the first time this morning. So I haven’t got a name for her yet,” he revealed.

Vettel was also asked about reports that his friend Michael Schumacher suffers from motion sickness at the wheel of driver simulators.

As for whether he has also been sick in a sim, he smiled: “Once, but only very briefly.

“I think it’s an important tool with testing so limited, especially with regards to (learning) the tracks,” added Vettel.

Red Bull driver Mark Webber will be at the wheel of ‘Luscious Liz’ at this weekend’s British grand prix.

The RB6 chassis was named by his teammate Sebastian Vettel at the beginning of the season, before it sustained damage and the German underperformed while Webber dominated in Barcelona and Monaco.

So Vettel, 23, stepped into the winter testing chassis and called it ‘Randy Mandy’.

Meanwhile, the car driven to Webber’s earlier emphatic wins this season has been temporarily retired after his backflip in the recent European grand prix.

After a tour of the team’s Milton Keynes factory on Wednesday, the news agency PA said Webber will now race Vettel’s earlier chassis.

The crashed car, currently featuring scrawled messages including ‘RIP’ courtesy of the mechanics, is now being repaired and will be used as the spare monocoque in Britain.

“I don’t get attached to cars, but clearly that one was unique,” said Webber, 33.

He revealed that after he won at Monaco, the team promised him he could keep the RB6.

“They’ll probably give me something else (now),” he added. “But the car did a great job for me in two cases. It won races for me, and it looked after me when I needed it.”

Webber’s new car is unlikely to feature the ‘Luscious Liz’ signage on the dashboard, with the Australian admitting his relationship with German Vettel is “pretty good” after their Istanbul crash but they don’t get on “like a house on fire”.

“If Seb’s drowning in the ocean then I’ll go and help him out. It’s not easy to have a beautiful, fuzzy, warm relationship when your teammate is clearly a competitor,” he said.

A car defect has prevented Sebastian Vettel from scoring pole position for the Turkish grand prix.

Instead, his on-form Red Bull teammate Mark Webber netted his third consecutive qualifying triumph, and on Sunday could complete a hat-trick of wins from pole.

But Vettel, with his new ‘Randy Mandy’ chassis at Istanbul Park, was actually quicker in Q1 and Q2, and on course for a much faster lap when his front wheel began locking under braking.

“The chassis change has paid off, if only they had changed this braking part too,” Niki Lauda said wryly to Motorsport-Magazin.com after qualifying.

The problem translated to a half-second deficit to Webber for Vettel, allowing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to slip between them on the grid.

“It was a tight fight with all of us and I think Seb had a bit of a problem with his car,” admitted Australian afterwards.

The disappointment clearly told on 22-year-old Vettel’s face, having come so close to bouncing back to top form after two races clearly behind his teammate.

“It should easily have been a lot quicker,” said the German.  “I’m not the type of guy who says ‘the car is broken, that’s it’.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko described Vettel’s problem as a “pity”, but for the energy drinks brand, its run of pole positions in 2010 remains unbroken.

“One and three is not so bad,” said the Austrian Marko.

(GMM)

Sebastian Vettel has named his latest RB6 chassis ‘Randy Mandy’.

Giving his cars an amorous female name has become one of the 22-year-old German’s several F1-related superstitions.

He religiously steps into his cars and dismounts from the left-hand side, and slides a lucky coin behind the laces of his boot.

Vettel called his original 2010 Red Bull ‘Luscious Liz’, following on from its 2009 predecessor ‘Kate’s Dirty Sister’.

But Luscious Liz has been retired after the team found damage in the wake of the Spain/Monaco double-header, dominated emphatically by his teammate Mark Webber.

It emerges that Vettel will now be at the wheel of the fully-updated test car.

It has been a warm and sunny day at Istanbul Park, and more of the same ‘t-shirt weather’ is expected throughout the Turkish GP weekend.

(GMM)