Nikita Mazepin has shared on social media a special training session with football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo as the Russian prepares for the new Formula 1 season.
Ronaldo has won five Champions League titles with Manchester United and Real Madrid, and has claimed seven league trophies in a career that took him to Italian side Juventus in 2018.
After three years in Turin, the Portuguese returned to Old Trafford last summer, and has now gone with his United side to Dubai for some warm weather training.
READ: Nikita Mazepin admits he needs to learn ‘how to act properly’
The Premier League is currently on a winter break, meaning that many clubs have opted to fly overseas to conduct conditioning in warmer environments, and Ronaldo ended up in the same gym as the 22-year-old Russian.
Mazepin posted a photo on Instagram of the pair together, captioning it “best gym session this year so far”, tagging the 36-year-old who replied with a fist bump emoji.
The Moscow-born racer will undoubtedly have taken some tips and valuable advice from the five-time Ballon D’or winner who, despite his age, continues to arguably remain in the best shape of his career.
The Haas driver ended his first season with Haas 20th in the Drivers’ Championship, while his team became the first outfit since Manor Marussia in 2015 to fail to score points across a whole season.
He was involved in a number of precarious moments alongside team-mate and fellow rookie Mick Schumacher, and has admitted that he would like to work on his behaviour within the team.
“Learning how to act properly in the team, I think that is something that I need to improve,” he told Motorsport.com.
READ: Mazepin, Schumacher realised nothing to ‘gain’ from ‘running into each other’ – Steiner
Mazepin and Schumacher have both been retained by the Haas team for the 2022 season amid vast changes to the technical regulations in Formula 1 that will significantly reduce the downforce of the cars and the power of the engine.
The 2022 campaign gets underway on 20 March in Bahrain following two pre-season tests in Barcelona and Sakhir.
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