The new name for Sebastian Vettel’s car

Sebastian Vettel has revealed the name of the RB8 he will pilot at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. She’s called Abbey after the defending world champion ruled out ‘Everybody’s Wife’ on the grounds of good taste…

Vettel was speaking at the team’s season-opening Beach Barbie bash in the seafront district of St Kilda in Melbourne but offered no explanation as to why he picked the name Abbey (or is it Abby?), other than he liked the name.

“We thought of ‘Everybody’s Wife’,” he grinned after revealing the identity of the successor to last year’s Kinky Kylie. “But we binned it because questions come..."

“One of the guys gave the explanation that it (the car) might not be too sexy because it has a bit of a beak and it needs a nose job, but it runs like a train!”

So Vettel settled on Abbey/Abby/Abi, but unlike previous cars, such as Luscious Liz and Kate’s Dirty Sister, he's going to find out what makes her tick before he adds any more description about the RB8’s unique attributes. “Let’s see how she behaves," he said.

Vettel was joined at the beach party by team-mate Mark Webber and Australian cricketers Peter Siddle and Brad Hodge, who, as luck would have it, happened to bring along a set of stumps for an impromptu game of beach cricket.

Vettel got a little coaching from Webber, who played in the same youth team as Aussie international Brad Haddin back in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. He was soon up to speed, and quickly got into the swing of things with the bat.

But when the German made an uncharacteristic error Webber was quick to seize the opportunity and ran the champion out.

A confident Webber said the team can't wait to get to the season started: “Yep, we're in good shape,” he said. “We believe it’s going in the right direction, but it only takes two or three tenths of a second and we need to do more. Let’s see when the gloves are off over the weekend. And then, we still need to go to Malaysia to see a slightly different track as well, because Melbourne is a specific place."

“But the guys have done a good job and we are looking forward to seeing if those upgrades are good. We will have on the car what we had in Barcelona. It is something that worked for us so we will keep it on the car.

“We have a sensational season ahead of us,” he added. “There is no guarantee, but I feel there are going to be some really, really good moments this year."

“I am bloody excited about the whole season and looking forward to some fantastic results.”

Source: Red Bull