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 "Two little ducks," the 33-year-old Briton, who won his Formula
One championship with the Brawn GP team that is now Mercedes, told
his 1.6 million Twitter followers. "Quack quack".
"#Jenson22 Great memories, looking forward to making a few more," he
added.
In British bingo halls numbers are called out using nicknames, with
22 sometimes referred to as two little ducks or quack quack. McLaren
confirmed Button would have that number.
Under new regulations for 2014, Formula One drivers will have
permanent numbers to be used throughout their careers and can choose
any between two and 99.
The number one is reserved for the champion, should he want to use
it, who will also have another number of choice allocated for future
use.
With three slots on the grid still to be filled, the governing FIA
has yet to publish an official list but the subject has kept Formula
One fans intrigued about who will choose what given the evocative
past of some of the numbers.
Now-retired 1992 champion Nigel Mansell remains 'Red Five' to many
while the late Gilles Villeneuve, one of Ferrari's greatest heroes,
remains closely identified with the number 27, which was also used at
times by the late Brazilian triple champion Ayrton Senna.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said last month he had requested 14, which
has been his lucky number since 1996 when at the age of 14 he won a
karting title with 14 on his car on July 14.
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"Let's see if it's lucky for me again," he told reporters in
Madrid.
The Spaniard is also a fan of Real Madrid soccer club, whose
Spain international midfielder Xabi Alonso plays with the number
14 shirt.
Alonso's new Finnish team mate, and 2007 world champion, Kimi
Raikkonen has opted for seven.
Other drivers to make public their choices so far include
Mexican Sergio Perez (11), Brazilian Felipe Massa (19) and
McLaren's Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen (20).
Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who has joined quadruple world
champion Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, told his Twitter
followers that he would race as number three.
Previously, the smiling Australian would have had to have the
number two on his car as the champion's teammate — a status
very few racing drivers willingly accept.
"If I was still in F1, I would have requested my favorite number
'3' with '69' as reserve because I was upside down a couple of
times," joked former racer turned Sky television commentator
Martin Brundle.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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