Jenson Button reveals car number selection
Jenson Button looks set to race car #22 this season, under the FIA's new system of drivers selecting a permanent number designation for their time in the F1 world championship from 2014.
Button revealed his choice on Twitter with a post in which he stated simply: "Two little ducks!!" followed soon after by "Quack quack!"
Two little ducks is traditional bingo parlance for 22, and just happens to be the number of the Brawn GP car in which he won the F1 world championship in 2009.
While not going as far as definitively declaring that he had been notified that he had clinched the #22 designation, Button sounded confident as he tweeted further: "#Jenson22 great memories, looking forward to making a few more. #22WDC2009," the latter hashtag referring to his title-winning year.
Asked by one of his 1.6 million followers on the social network whether this meant that his team would now add two ducks to the lake outside the futuristic McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Button replied "Hopefully!"
The team itself also took to Twitter on Friday morning to confirm: "Overnight news.... @JensonButton's driver number will be 22, the number which he won the 2009 world championship with."
Button's new team mate for 2014, Kevin Magnussen, has also already tweeted about his secured his own preferred choice of car number. "Here's some news," Magnussen tweeted on Wednesday. "My driver number will be 20 this year, which I won the @WSR_Live 3.5 title with last year."
Despite the McLaren drivers appearing confident about their selections, the FIA has yet to indicate when the confirmed official list of designations will be unveiled. Although there are still three race seats yet to be filled, testing is due to kick off at the end of the month and car launches are scheduled before that, so the list cannot be far away.
Sebastian Vettel is expected to retain the #1 this season, the only number not permanently allocated to any given driver, while his new Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo has opted for #3.
"Racing number confirmed. #3 ladies and gentlemen," the Australian tweeted on Friday morning, clearly happy to officially avoid having to be the team's "number two driver" this season.
Fernando Alonso is expected to get the #14 he used in his junior career after he won a karting title with 14 on his car on July 14 when he was aged 14. In addition, his namesake Xabi Alonso plays for Real Madrid (the team that Alonso supports) with the number 14 shirt.
Nico Rosberg lists #6 as his first choice, the number is the one father Keke carried to the 1982 world title, while Felipe Massa has said that he wants #19 for his Williams debut.
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas had stated that he requested the #77, #17 and #11 as his three choices, but since then apparently already registered the trademark 'BO77AS'.
Jules Bianchi clearly sees seven as a lucky requirement, asking for #7, #27 or #77, while Romain Grosjean revealed at the turn of the year that his preference is #8, followed by #29 and #11.
Sergio Perez is chasing the #11 for his first season at Force India, while Kimi Raikkonen has opted for #7, while Lewis Hamilton has yet to divulge his selections but may be in the running for the coveted #27 made famous by Gilles Villeneuve.
