Sebastian Vettel has named his 2014 contender, which looks set to be a bit of a handful, Suzie.

It has become tradition for the German to name his cars, once saying: "It is important to have a close relationship with a car. Like a ship, a car should be named after a girl as it’s sexy."

Sure enough, the STR3 in which he drove his first full season for Toro Rosso was called 'Julie', followed by 'Kate' and 'Kate's Dirty Sister' with Red Bull in 2009, 'Luscious Liz' and 'Randy Mandy' in 2010, 'Kinky Kylie' in 2011, 'Abbey' in 2012 and 'Hungry Heidi' in 2013.

Following a traditional pre-Melbourne meeting with members of his team, the German has opted to call his 2014 contender 'Suzie', Red Bull announcing his decisuion via Twitter.

Following a nightmare in pre-season testing Sebastian will be hoping that the tightly packaged Suzie proves a little more competitive than she currently appears and that her creator, Adrian Newey, can sort out her numerous problems over the coming weeks.

That said, under the circumstances, perhaps 'Temperamental Tanya', 'Hot Hattie' or 'Overheating Olga' might have been more appropriate.

Chris Balfe