F1 is truly live and back again, with all the whistles blazing and the engines whirring. The sound that we all love comes from the cars during the unveiling of the forthcoming season’s challengers. This time, it was Haas who started it and Alpine who brought it to a close. And the French team, during its presentation with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, presented its new brand ambassador, football legend Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane comes into the role of championing equal opportunities, as he is now the brand ambassador and sponsor of Alpine’s equal opportunity programs: Rac(H)er and the Concours Excellence Mécanique. Speaking about it, as quoted by Formula 1, he said, “I think it’s important to tell children that, wherever they come from, they can one day become the champions of tomorrow in whatever walk of life they choose and that they should always believe in their dreams… This Alpine project is here to help make that possible. Change takes time, so if I can contribute and help speed things up, it’s with great satisfaction for me.”
Meet @AlpineF1Team's newest ambassador….🤩
French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane! 🤯⚽️#F1 pic.twitter.com/o4iuAhs9Xe
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 16, 2023
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And this gift to us F1 and football fans just keeps on giving. This was a crossover that no one expected but realizes its stature given Zizou’s involvement, which is rare to come by for any team, let alone an F1 team. So now, on the chance, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon didn’t miss his chance to get personally clicked with the legend and use a corny caption that had all the fans rolling on the floor.
Fans react to Esteban Ocon’s click
Seeing Zinedine Zidane smile brought a smile to everyone’s face. We’re sure it would absolutely be something that Pierre Gasly would like sooner or later. People, in their own agreement, appreciated Ocon for his humor. However, in the battle of fan comments between Instagram fans and Twitter fans, the latter took the win.
READ MORE: Lion Hearted Esteban Ocon Shares Astonishing Details About Life-Threatening Experience
someone who is “Iconic” and someone is is “Oconic”
— SMR ChrisGLT (@ChrisGLT) February 18, 2023
Foucault & Ratatouille https://t.co/Qf9G3V9da2
— Juan Carlos Montalvà Chordà (@JQKiing) February 18, 2023
you’re so corny🤣 https://t.co/lkber7cFAW
— Wawa 🦋 (@wame___) February 18, 2023
Can smell the baguettes through my screen https://t.co/zvDAjix0BR
— Super Max 🦁🏴🇳🇱🏆🏆 (@dangerkl) February 18, 2023
Name a weirder crossover…
— Ben ⚽️ (@ChelseaFinsF1) February 18, 2023
One of the comments on the Instagram post read, “Estie will never wash his shoulder ever again,” while the other read, “Estie bestie, your captions are oconic!👌🏼.”
Looks like Estie got a new bestie.
— The Formula Guys (@theFormulaGuys) February 18, 2023
I CANT HANDLE YOU 😂
— LARI (@itsfiorini) February 18, 2023
The way Esteban is just like me https://t.co/AZ87ILf68E
— Kimiz (@calamitykimiz) February 18, 2023
he thinks he’s so funny (and he’s right) https://t.co/IS59xzrlS1
— bree🐝 (@brees_flowers) February 18, 2023
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OH HES SOOOO 😭 https://t.co/QK9CSbjpbe
— sophie (@lysonnais) February 18, 2023
The other fan made a reference to X-Men, probably referring to Zidane’s technical understanding of the game and his successful stint as manager, saying, “xmen are happy now.”
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Alpine’s new initiative is just one of the many introduced in the world of F1. The programs are hard to manage and run, but given Zizou’s involvement, the chances of success have certainly shot up exponentially.