{"id":417294,"date":"2026-01-16T17:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/417294\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:01:09","slug":"oscar-piastris-google-ad-slips-in-ruthless-alpine-joke-fans-cant-unsee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/417294\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri\u2019s Google ad slips in ruthless Alpine joke fans can\u2019t unsee"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent Google Pixel advert starring Oscar Piastri<\/a> has gone viral after it landed a joke at the expense of the Alpine<\/a> Formula 1 team – a squad the Australian driver rejected as he took a seat at McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The driver ended up racing for the Woking team after a messy 2022 contract saga played out on social media. While this resulted in one of the most memorable moments of the season, Piastri has – for the most part – kept quiet about the drama that took place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in a comedy style that fit him perfectly, he let a deadpan punchline do the heavy lifting in this video, as well as a prop that fans didn’t miss.<\/p>\n

The video focuses on the use of a Google Pixel phone while Piastri pokes fun at his lack of visible emotion, something he’s become famous for during his three years in F1.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I know I don’t always show it, but winning does excite me,” he said with a straight face. The camera pans to a photo of him holding a trophy once again with a straight face. But it was the next clip that fans went crazy for.<\/p>\n

The driver walked into a room as two men replace a painting of alpine mountains with a painting of a papaya fruit – a joke about the change of team. His voiceover continued: “So when I see a chance to get ahead, I will change things up.”<\/p>\n

The comment section did what it always does best when brands leave the door ajar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Am I the only one that noticed the painting change from mountains (Alpine F1) to papaya (McLaren)?\u201d a commenter asked, while another was more blunt: \u201cThe picture switch is absolutely diabolical… I love it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Later in the video, he asks Google’s AI, Gemini, to come up with a race-winning speech that “sounds like me”.<\/p>\n

“Thanks,” the machine replies, prompting a nod from the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n

Piastri finished third in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship and will be hoping McLaren retains the momentum it built up the final two years of the ground effect era.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Switching to Google Pixel was an easy decision,\u201d said Piastri in a separate video. “Am I a Formula 1 racing driver? Yep. Am I a professional actor with a full emotional range? Nope. But I\u2019m excited on the inside to be on the winning team with Google Pixel.”<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar embodies the ‘never settle’ mindset that drives Google Pixel – he is relentlessly chasing the best, just like we are,\u201d said Suzana Ristevski, Google Australia\u2019s chief marketing officer.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to bring such iconic homegrown talent to the brand. This is a uniquely Australian campaign – it\u2019s full of delight and showcases the very best of Google Pixel in a way that we know will really resonate with local fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google has been a sponsor of McLaren since the 2022 season and continues on a multi-year deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent Google Pixel advert starring Oscar Piastri has gone viral after it landed a joke at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,913,2333,220109,220010,85,1511],"class_list":{"0":"post-417294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-mclaren","14":"tag-oscar-piastri","15":"tag-oscar-piastriu2019s-google-ad-slips-in-ruthless-alpine-joke-fans-canu2019t-unsee","16":"tag-racing-bulls-launch","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-trendingteam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}