Sebastian Vettel has always had a penchant for giving his F1 cars fancy names. They are usually treated as ladies and his first Aston Martin is no different. True to the style and legacy of Aston Martin which has featured in the James Bond movies, Vettel has named his car Honey Ryder after the first Bond girl in the Sean Connery staring Dr No. in which Ursula Andress played the iconic role.
"Honey Ryder... The first of its kind. New story, so we thought it was a good one," he told SKY F1 eluding to the fact that Honey Ryder was the first-ever Bond girl. Of course, in the past, Vettel named his cars Margherita, Luscious Liz, Randy Mandy, Kate and Kate's Dirty Sister.
"Favourite movie? Favourite Bond? I think Sean Connery and to be fair Pierce Brosnan. That's my youth! But yeah, Sean Connery, I think just very good style. And which movie? I quite like the first one. It kicked it off, obviously because of Honey Ryder," Vettel added talking about his love for the Bond franchise.
The new Aston Martin livery has been turning heads
During Aston Martin's reveal, they even brought out Daniel Craig who is slated to appear for the last time as James Bond in "No Time To Die" which was originally scheduled for a 2020 release but got postponed because of the pandemic.
Sean Connery who perhaps is most famous for playing James Bond and instrumental in popularising the character sadly passed away last year. Aston Martin returns to formula 1 after a gap of over 50 years and when last it was in the sport, neither F1 nor the James Bond franchise was as well known. Aston Martin has been synonymous with James Bond over the last 50 years, so for Vettel to name the car after the first Bond girl is apt.
The legend of Astin Martin goes hand-in-hand with Sean Connery's James Bond which started with Dr No in 1962
While many hope Vettel will find the form that made him a ruthless 4-time world champion between 2010 and 2013, there are question marks over his ability and his preparation as the Aston Martin car had reliability issues in the pre-season tests which have hobbled his prep.
The German, however, seemed unfazed. "I don't think that anyone is really fully prepared for what's coming," he said. "We have a lot of races and we didn't have a great deal of testing, but yeah that's what it is. "I'm confident that we should be in a reasonable position. So hopefully we can use the track time that we have, and get on top of it straight away to get ready for qualifying and then the race," he added.
