Vasseur: Little Mole is a plucky, adventurous little animal

Of late a seat in front of the television watching a Grand Prix is snooze-inducing for the most energetic of us, and may well do the trick for hyperactive sleep avoiding kids. Go Alfa!

Here's the Alfa Romeo press release:

There will be an extra dose of adventure in the Alfa Romeo Racing garage as Little Mole, the beloved cartoon character created by animator Zdeněk Miler, is announced as the new team partner.

Born in 1956 in Prague, Little Mole is not your ordinary mole. Over more than six decades, its adventures have spanned the globe, propelling the cute mammal to stardom and growing a massive fan base, especially in Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries.

Ever the record-breaker, in 2011 Little Mole hitched a ride on the Space Shuttle Endeavour and took to space as a guest of astronaut Andrew Feustel for its most incredible adventure to date. With a new taste for technology and derring-do, Little Mole then looked to the next frontier – and found Alfa Romeo Racing, where the iconic figure will adorn our cars for the rest of the season.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal Alfa Romeo Racing and CEO Sauber Motorsport AG: “There is a lot of focus on bringing new audiences to Formula 1 and Little Mole, with its big follower base all over the world, can help us capture the imagination of hundreds of thousands of children and get them closer to our sport. Little Mole is a plucky, adventurous little animal who uses its ingenuity and curiosity to explore the world. It’s that ingenuity that fosters the creativity our sport needs.”

According to Wikipedia, this is the history of Little Mole:

Mole (in the Czech original called Krtek, or, for little mole, Krteček) is an animated character in a series of cartoons created by Czech animator Zdeněk Miler. The premiere of the first short film with Mole took place at the Venice Film Festival in 1957. Since its inception, the cartoon has gained enormous popularity in many Central European countries, as well as India, China, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Iraq, and Japan.

In May 2012, Bloomberg announced that Apple Inc. is planning to help Krtek enter the $21-billion U.S. toy market for the first time. Exporting the six-decade-old “Little Mole” through new media is a first step toward establishing the most popular Czech animated icon in America to spur sales of books, movies, and toys. Colouring books about the Mole have been very popular with young children.

Mole was the mascot for the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, and was subsequently used to promote the Federation's Athletics for Children programme.