“Esteban Ocon with a fan”: Alpine star sends F1 fans into a spiral after clicking a selfie with French football legend Zinedine Zidane

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon went viral on social media after uploading a picture with French football legend Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane was signed by Alpine earlier this season as their brand ambassador for their equal opportunities program, "Rac(H)er and the Concours Excellence Mecanique." Esteban Ocon, a driver for the team, recently posted a picture of himself with the ex-footballer that excited fans online.

One fan wrote:

"esteban ocon with a fan."

Here are more fan reactions to the post:

The picture was taken Zidane hosted both Alpine drivers, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, for a meeting. Talking about his partnership with the French outfit, Zidane said that he and Alpine share a common aspiration of excellence. He said (via GPFans):

"While we come from different areas, we each have a common goal in striving for high performance and excellence."

He added:

"Therefore, it is great to be able to share moments, experiences and ideas for the benefit of those involved in these two magnificent and genuinely meaningful programmes."

Zidane notably played for France and Real Madrid and was the manager of the latter from 2016 to 2018 and then again from 2019 to 2021.

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Esteban Ocon deeply committed to the 2024 F1 season

Alpine's hopes of having a remarkable finish in the 2023 Constructors' Championships went in vain after the team suffered from reliability issues with a car that was not competitive enough.

The team dropped down to sixth place (with 120 points) in the Championship while Esteban Ocon dropped to twelfth, scoring only 58 points throughout the season.

Focusing on the 2024 F1 season, Esteban Ocon shared his extreme commitment to racing in an effort to put the team at the top of the midfield battle. He said (via RacingNews365):

"From January 2nd until the first test I will be back fully into training camp. I'm going to be more doing the way I was doing it in 2022, which is no life, flat out, only racing. We've been doing a lot of different things and activations outside the track this year."

Ocon further added that he would go into complete 'war mode' to train himself for the next season. He said:

"That's going to change next year. It's back to war mode and fully focused on the racing side. Before that there's going be the Christmas party of the team, there's going be some simulator work."

The Frenchman also stated that he would spend some more time with his family during the holidays and also meet up with former F1 driver Mick Schumacher. After this, he plans to be surrounded by racing without any distractions.

"I'm going be able to have a couple of days seeing my family that I haven't seen for a while. We're going to have some good times with friends, with Mick [Schumacher], with all my friends in December as well, and then it's fully focused on next year."

This will be Ocon's fourth running season with the French outfit. The best he has finished so far with the team was eighth during the 2022 season.