Ocon raves over 'inspiring' Ryan Reynolds Alpine investment

Esteban Ocon has welcomed the "inspiring" addition of Ryan Reynolds to the team after the Hollywood actor became one of the numerous investors to Alpine.

Reynolds has added to his sporting portfolio after the world-famous story involving his ownership of Welsh football club Wrexham alongside Rob McElhenney, with his Maximum Effort Investments joined by Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners as £171 million was injected.

Ocon, a self-confessed comic-book fan, has confirmed he has been in contact with the Deadpool actor since the deal was confirmed and told media, including RacingNews365.com: "It is fantastic.

"I was extremely lucky to be able to chat with Ryan, so we exchanged a couple of WhatsApp [messages] together.

"He said I was invited onto set in London for the Deadpool movie, so I am definitely going to be going. He also said he was very much looking forward to learning from our world.

"I am a massive comic and Marvel fan, a massive Deadpool fan and he is just very inspiring in what he does, outside his acting world, he is an extremely talented businessman as well.

"So I am very much looking forward to meeting him properly."

We can improve

Alpine has been careful in explaining that the investment will not directly translate to on-track performance for the F1 operation.

Instead, the injection will look at other areas of the F1 business to help push the French manufacturer, which is based across factories in Enstone and Viry, to the top of the sport.

Echoing comments made by Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi when the investment was announced, Ocon said: "As a whole, all the investors are going to bring their expertise into the team and it really shows the dedication of the team to push forward on every aspect.

"That is not going to help the performance of the car itself, but in every aspect, we can improve, we are going to have these investors' expertise where they excel."