Inside Cadillac F1's Austrian GP Meltdown: Overheating Brakes, Double DNF, and a Season on the Brink

Both Cadillac F1 cars retired from the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix due to overheating brakes that caught fire within the first five laps — a failure that left the team pointless after eight rounds and capped a weekend where their biggest upgrade package of the season was rendered nearly useless by reliability chaos.

What Happened in Austria

• Lap 3 – Valtteri Bottas radioed that his brakes were on fire and pulled into the pits to retire .
• Lap 5 – Sergio Perez reported smoke in the cockpit and also stopped in the pit lane .

Cadillac's official race report confirmed both retirements were caused by overheating brakes, exacerbated by running in traffic on a hot day at the Red Bull Ring . Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said: "In the traffic the brakes overheated and we had to stop both cars" .

The double DNF was the culmination of a disastrous weekend:

• Friday practice – Perez suffered electrical issues in both FP1 and FP2, while Bottas dragged damaged suspension back to the pits, causing a floor fire .
• The big upgrade – Cadillac arrived with a "substantial" 10-component package including new sidepods, a revised floor, and a re-profiled sidepod inlet and engine cover . The FIA submission listed these changes under "reliability" goals: revised sidepod inlet geometry to improve airflow to the radiators . But Friday's electrical and fire issues meant the team lost nearly all practice running, leaving them unable to validate the upgrades or gather meaningful data before the race .

A Broader Reliability Crisis

Through eight rounds, Cadillac has zero points and has finished both cars in only three races . The brake overheating problem is not new:

• Monaco GP (June 7) – Both drivers suffered brake overheating all weekend. The team made improvised brake duct modifications for qualifying. Bottas retired on lap 15 with brake failure . Perez finished 10th on the road but a post-race penalty erased the team's only potential point .
• Barcelona (June 14) – Bottas suffered his second consecutive DNF (retired lap 15), with signs of a brake pedal issue in FP3 .
• Australia (opening round) – Bottas retired on lap 16 with a fuel system problem .

The Pattern and the Implications

The evidence points to a fundamental weakness in Cadillac's braking system: it cannot manage thermal loads on tracks with heavy braking zones and limited cooling straights (Monaco, Austria). The problem strikes Bottas's car especially hard. Bottas himself noted that it was "now the third race where basically I've had to stop because of brakes" .

The Austrian upgrade — which was supposed to be a step toward points — instead exposed the same weakness under hot race conditions. The team was unable to gather race data from the new parts due to the early double retirement, leaving them with limited understanding of how the upgrades perform in a race stint. As a result, Cadillac heads into the next rounds still searching for their first point, with a car that has shown promise in qualifying but has been let down by chronic reliability.

For a new team in its maiden season, these struggles are common. But the specific recurrence of the brake overheating problem, especially on tracks that are known to be tough on brakes, suggests that the issue needs a more fundamental engineering solution rather than the incremental fixes attempted so far.