F1 fans spot subtle Oscar Piastri dig at former team in McLaren advert | F1 | Sport
Eagle-eyed Formula 1 fans have spotted a subtle dig at Oscar Piastri‘s former team in a new advert featuring the McLaren racer. Piastri is the star of a new promotional video for the Google Pixel 10 Pro mobile phone, which has been released on YouTube via the official Google Australia channel.
The whole 30-second clip is a play on the Australian’s laidback personality which has defined him over the course of his three years racing in F1 so far. While many drivers around him show their emotions under stress when speaking over the radio while driving, Piastri has a knack of staying very level, not allowing himself to get too high or too low.
Google’s new advert featuring the Aussie racer plays on that, opening with Piastri sat on a sofa and staring down the camera as he says: “I know I don’t always show it, but winning does excite me.” The camera then shows some photos of Piastri holding trophies and then returns to him on the sofa, wearing a deadpan expression.
But it is the next part of the sequence which has F1 fans convinced that Piastri and Google, a major sponsor of his McLaren team, have taken a deliberate swipe at his former employer Alpine. McLaren poached him away in the summer of 2022m before he had made his F1 debut, when Alpine tried to promote him to a race seat without tying him down properly to a contract.
The situation prompted Piastri’s infamous post on social media in which he denied that he had agreed to race for Alpine in 2023. No one knew it yet, but he had already agreed to quit and join McLaren who would promote him to a race seat alongside Lando Norris. The case went before the FIA’s contract resolution committee, which ruled that Alpine did not have a valid deal with Piastri and so he was free to join McLaren.
It turned out to be a brilliant move, as Piastri and his new team have gone on to win multiple races and the constructors’ title over the last two seasons. In contrast, Alpine suffered a wretched year in 2025 and finished dead last in the championship. The advert plays into that, as a Piastri voiceover says: “So when I see a chance to get ahead, I will change things up. Why would you want anything less than the best?”
As he says that, Piastri is shown watching on as two tradespeople remove a painting of an alpine scene with snowy mountains from the wall of his home, replacing it with a large image of a papaya fruit – the adopted colour in which McLaren race. As the switch happens, Piastri is shown nodding his approval.
Having finished third in the championship this year, despite having led for six months, Piastri will hope to do even better in 2026. Though it will depend on how well McLaren adapt to the new aero regulations coming into force, and also how powerful the new Mercedes engine that will power their cars proves to be.
