Valtteri Bottas says Cadillac must improve its poor Formula 1 reliability record after both he and Sergio Perez retired early from the Austrian Grand Prix with brake fires.
The Spielberg race continued a trend as Cadillac suffered a spate of reliability issues and operational errors, with Perez thwarted on Friday by electrical gremlins while Bottas’ front floor tray caught fire due to a build error.
Things got even worse on Sunday when both cars retired within a handful of laps as their brakes caught fire on the toasty Red Bull Ring. According to Bottas, the issue cropped up out of nowhere and he suggested Cadillac was caught out by a combination of higher ambient temperatures and less cooling opportunities in the back of the pack.
“No warning,” he reported after the race. “Everything was under control in practice. We did more than 10 laps in a row. That’s normally more than enough to get the peak temperature at the beginning of the race.
“But I think today, with this slight increase in temperature, and then with the traffic effect, things just caught on fire already on lap two, so it’s a big issue. Obviously, we’ve got to find a fix for it.”
Cadillac also hit trouble during Friday practice.
Photo by: Pauline Ballet / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Those issues made it harder for Cadillac to calibrate an impressive raft of upgrades on its MAC-26, which seems to have delivered another step in performance. But as Bottas suffered his third consecutive retirement, the team is losing precious mileage to get the most out of its package and find further fixes for other problems that have plagued the new team.
“If we don’t finish the races, then we can’t really learn much out of the car and the package either,” the Finnish veteran added. “The priority is now pretty clear in Silverstone. We have to finish the race. That’s when we can learn.
“We had new bits in terms of brake cooling for this weekend, but clearly not enough, so we’ve just got to keep working on it.
“We had new parts. We found that we got some more pace but if we don’t finish the race, then that’s what it is. That was probably the most disappointing race this season, both cars out only a few laps in.
“The only thing we can do is work hard as a team. That’s going to be the only solution and way to move forward.”
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