Piastri ‘curse’ theory takes hold in promo gone wrong; Red Bull expenses probed: Pit Talk

Oscar Piastri’s third consecutive fifth-place finish has had significant repercussions for his championship, but the effects of his score slump have also reverberated all the way back home to Melbourne.

In just the latest chapter of Formula 1 promotions gone wrong, a personal Piastri sponsor has had to make some late adjustments to a burger promotion to better reflect the Australian’s standing in the title race.

McLaren, meanwhile, is remaining on the front foot in the fight against its biggest rivals despite having already romped to the constructors championship, querying the FIA over Red Bull Racing’s approach to the cost cap.

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

And home favourite Gabriel Bortoleto reflects on his disastrous first Sao Paulo outing.

PIASTRI SUFFERS MELBOURNE BURGER CURSE IN PROMO GONE WRONG

Australian burger chain Grill’d has walked back a promotion that promised customers a free additional Oscar Piastri-branded burger every time the McLaren driver finished on the podium.

The requirement for the bonus burger has been downgraded simply to any race in which the Melburnian sees the chequered flag in a grim reflection of Piastri’s form slump.

Piastri penned a sponsorship deal with the burger chain for the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year that included a limited-edition Piastri-branded hamburger.

The burger was subsequently relaunched in September, following Piastri’s third-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix, along with a promotion that offered Grill’d customers a free second burger each time Piastri took home a podium trophy.

Monza was Piastri’s 14th podium finish of the year, but he hasn’t reappeared on the rostrum since, and two weeks ago he lost the lead of the championship.

Some have humorously described his bout of poor form as a burger curse stemming from the promotion.

Three rounds remain this campaign, with the deal running until the end of the season.

Grill’d isn’t the only business to have a Formula 1 promotional campaign run into trouble.

Among the most famous promotion to go awry was run by the organisers of the 2014 German Grand Prix. Held during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, prospective ticketholders were offered a discount for every goal the national team scored against the host national in their semi-final clash.

With Germany meting out an unexpected 7-1 thrashing of the hapless Brazilians, organisers were forced to slash ticket prices by more than A$110 each.

The race, already struggling financially, was held only three more times, the last of which was bankrolled by Mercedes, before dropping off the calendar.

Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup final 1-0 in extra time.

McLAREN PROBES RED BULL COST CAP OVER ENGINE CHANGE

McLaren is probing the FIA for answers over Red Bull Racing’s cost cap accounting after Max Verstappen took on a fresh power unit at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Red Bull Racing withdrew Verstappen’s car from the grid on Saturday night to make sweeping set-up changes after the Dutchman qualified a lowly 16th, the worst qualifying result by merit of his career.

The team also handed him a fresh power unit given the ensuing grid penalty would be absorbed by the pit-lane start, effectively making it a free change.

Given all F1 engines suffer some amount of performance degradation over time, the fresh motor will have played a role in Verstappen’s monumental comeback from pit lane to the podium, including a brief stint in the lead of the race.

By agreement teams are given dispensation to swap engines in the case of unreliability without the cost being included inside the cap. This ensures teams aren’t penalised for engine failures, particularly if they occur late in the year, when a brand-new motor might be enough to push a constructor already near their spending limit over the cost threshold.

However, taking a new motor purely on performance grounds is supposed to incur costs, in part to disincentivise teams from planning on exceeding their allocations on performance grounds.

McLaren principal Andrea Stella said it was important that Red Bull Racing’s situation was made clear.

“To be honest, these kinds of power unit changes, they challenge the regulations,” Stella said, per The Race.

“I will be interested in understanding if the cost of this engine now goes in the cost cap or not.

“If the engine was changed for performance reasons, it should go in the cost cap.

“Let’s see if this is the case — not that I will be able to see, as it’s all on the Red Bull side.

“But this is also one reason why we wouldn’t do it, because it would end up in the cost cap.”

Lando Norris suffered a power unit problem at the Dutch Grand Prix that forced him out of the race.

Though the team has since suggested the power unit was salvageable, having found the motor had shut down to protect itself after detecting an oil line problem, it might have been tempted to introduce a fresh part as a precaution, notwithstanding the effect the ensuing penalty would have on the title fight.

Red Bull Racing is the only team to have been found to have exceeded the cost cap, with the FIA fining the team and cutting its wind tunnel time for spending £1.86 million (A$3.76 million) above the cap during the 2021 season, though much of the difference was down to disagreements over tax credits.

BORTOLETO RUES CAREER-WORST WEEKEND AT HOME

Gabriel Bortoleto has described his first home Sao Paulo Grand Prix as one of the toughest weekends of his racing career after failing to complete a lap following his monumental sprint crash on Saturday morning.

Bortoleto was battling Alex Albon for 10th place in the sprint when he locked his rear axle getting on the brakes late into turn 1. His car immediately spun into the concrete pit barrier, from where it ricocheted across the circuit and momentarily got airborne before slamming into the barriers on the opposite side of the track.

Bortoleto was able to walk away from what was measured as a 57g crash.

The rebuild, however, was too significant for Sauber to complete in time for qualifying, with the team missing the end of Q1 by only a few minutes.

It condemned Bortoleto to a back-of-grid start, and though he got a good launch and made up ground immediately, Lance Stroll squeezed him onto the kerbs around the track, from where his car snapped from his control and crunched into the barriers, ending his race on the spot.

“I’m just very upset because it’s my first home race, so you always expect to do a good job — or at least race a little bit,” Bortoleto said.

“I think it has been one of the toughest weekends of my whole career because I see that my fans are here, my family, my team.

“For them, it’s also very important and it was one of the biggest accidents I’ve had in my career — probably the biggest one.

“I think it’s a combination of things, and then not doing a single lap in the race after having a good start.”

Bortoleto is the first Brazilian to compete in Sao Paulo since Felipe Massa retired in 2017, and the 21-year-old thanked his home fans for their vociferous support throughout the weekend.

“Even throughout the difficult moments of this weekend, they have been there supporting, cheering, screaming my name and being there,” he said. “I cannot thank them enough.

“It’s just incredible to see my country so happy to have someone. I hope I make them proud soon because on weekends like this, no-one is happy.

“Thank you everyone — every single Brazilian there, and everyone in the world watching and supporting me this weekend.”

Bortoleto will return to Sao Paulo next year as an Audi works driver once the German marque completes its takeover of his Sauber team.