Zidane drove karts and played football with Gasly and Ocon

Zidane, legendary French football player and former Real Madrid coach, has been an ambassador for Alpine – the French car manufacturer of the Renault Group, which has taken over the French company’s sports car and racing activities – since last February.

On Tuesday December 12, the French footballer welcomed Alpine F1 members, including the team’s French drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, in Madrid and at the Real Madrid facility. He led them through the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu and the trophy room of the famous Spanish team. Zidane himself contributed to five of these trophies as a footballer from 2001 to 2006 and eleven more as Los Blancos coach from 2016 to 21.

After visiting the Real Madrid stadium, the French soccer star took the two Formula 1 drivers and the Alpine Academy drivers to an electric kart race at a kart track in the Spanish capital. And the day ended with a purely Zidane-friendly football game with the drivers.

Zidane brings his racing experience to Alpine’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, including the Rac(H)er and the Concours Excellence Mecanique (CEMA).

Rac(H)er aims to promote gender equality across all Alpine activities – from the racers to the company’s engineers and technicians. Two young women were actually present in Madrid who competed in international karting with the support of Rac(H)er: Lisa Billard and Sukmani Kera.

CEMA is Alpine’s program that highlights aspiring automotive mechanics. It is sponsored by (and) Esteban Ocon and offers graduates of French technical colleges opportunities for professional development in the automotive and motorsport sectors. With three theoretical and practical exams, successful candidates secure a place at the Alpine base in Viry-Sautillon, Paris.