by Tess Tarossa on Nov 25th, 2010

Post-season blues anyone?  All's a bit quiet on the F1-front this week, and POP has well and truly scraped the barrel of interesting Formula 1 news stories ... enjoy!

PITS.  Mario Theissen -

Leave Formula 1?  Seriously?  People normally have to be (illegally) banned from our beloved sport to make them leave (Flavio Briatore, ahem).  However, BMW boss Mario Theissen has decided to leave in favour of pastures new...  which is a shame, given that he's been an interesting and sometimes candid figure in the F1 paddock since heading up the BMW team in 2006.

Mario:  please accept POP's imaginary farewell card!

PITS.  Team names -

What's in a name?  'Minardi' was never a good Formula 1 team name, with the connotations of 'min' being the minimum, minimal etc etc.  'HRT' denotes Hormone Replacement Therapy in the UK (the drugs they give to hormonal menopausal women), lovely.  Were/are these teams successful with such names?  The simply answer is no.  The more complicated answer is, err, no.

You get the idea, a name's important in Formula 1.

There are two teams currently grappling with this issue, namely (get it) BMW/Sauber/whatever and Lotus Racing.  Lotus is having some legal wranglings about its use of the name, and Sauber are still debating their name now BMW has officially left the building.  So what do you think they should call themselves?  POP will award a coveted Christmas POP Award for F1 Creativity to the person who can come up with the best suggestions.  Simply put your ideas in the comments below...

PODIUM.  Chilling out.... yeah baby!

The Formula 1 drivers are getting a well-deserved rest after the 2010 season finally wrapped up recently.

POP has been reliably informed by a rather drunken friend that Jenson Button was in Mahiki last week, and fellow team-mate Lewis Hamilton has been on the set of Men in Black III.  Don't get too excited!  Lewis is not the new Will Smith!  He was there supporting his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger learn her lines.  POP hopes there'll be a Pussycat dolls v Will Smith song in the pipeline... featuring Lewis?

PITS.  Vettel's ego -

So great, so inflated, so ridiculously over-hyped ... has Vettel's ego become!  Ok, ok, Vettel, so you won a world championship.

So what? Jacques Villeneuve won one too, you know what I'm saying?  One world championship is to be revered, but you need to get beyond the lucky number 1 before POP will give a monkey's uncle about your "achievements".  Vettel will return to his home country on Saturday to drive the 'Fan Mile'.  "I will rock Berlin" Vettel said.  Don't rest on those laurels, Seb, that's all POP's saying.

PODIUM. Cheap(er) team merchandise -

It may be the end of the season and there's no F1 for over 100 days, but the good news is that team merchandise prices have been slashed by a number of teams including both Williams and Mercedes GP who have 50% off much of their gear - bargain-tastic! (click the links to check out the offers!)