Celebrating the Year of the F1 Dog

Friday marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year, with celebrations set to last for over two weeks.

In Chinese astrology, each year is related to a zodiac animal according to the 12-year cycle. This year it's the start of the Year of the Dog, which occupies the eleventh position in the Chinese zodiac.

Specifically, this year is represented by an Earth Dog for the first time since 1958. Anyone born in an Earth Dog year is said to be communicative, serious, and responsible in the workplace.

To mark the occasion, we've picked an actual dog for our Picture of the Day. Red Bull found a test and development hound to take over the race seat of the RB14. It's possible he's even more cute and adorable than Max Verstappen! Better watch those claws, though - they look set to seriously scratch that expensive paintwork.

Surely one of the most familiar dogs in Formula 1 is Lewis Hamilton's famous best friend Roscoe. He's photographed below with his master at the Mercedes factory. (The Formula 1 driver is the one on the right.)

In case you're wondering, Hamilton himself was born on January 7 1985, which makes him a bit of a Rat - sorry, Lewis! On the plus side, a Rat is predicted to have good luck and lots of wealth in 2018, which perhaps points to another successful season ahead for the reigning champion.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.