Valtteri Bottas urged changes to Cadillac’s F1 project after yet another retirement in the season. The Finnish driver believes the team must concede some aerodynamic efficiency in order to improve brake cooling and prevent further reliability issues.
At the Austrian Grand Prix, Bottas and his teammate, Sergio Perez, retired in the early stages after the brakes on both cars caught fire. It marked Bottas’s third consecutive retirement, having previously left the Monaco and Spain races due to brake problems and overheating, respectively. Perez also faced brake-system difficulties during a practice session in Monaco.
Make RallyBuzz your preferred source for Formula 1 news on Google and Google Discover as well.
Bottas said nothing pointed to the problem arising during the race. “There was no warning. Everything was under control in the practice sessions, we did more than ten laps in a row, which is usually enough to reach the peak temperatures before the race,” he explained. “It was very sudden. I saw smoke before turn 4 and, as I left it, I noticed the fire. It all happened very quickly.”
“It’s clear that we need to redesign some parts; otherwise we won’t finish the races. There will be an aerodynamic cost to using larger cooling ducts, but I accept that loss to be able to complete a race. We need to start finishing races, because that’s how we learn,” he stated.
Bottas labeled the Austrian Grand Prix as the most frustrating moment of the season for the team. “Probably the most disappointing race of the year. We lost both cars with only a few laps completed. The only thing we can do is work hard, that’s the only way to move forward,” he concluded.
