Valtteri Bottas Urges Cadillac to Sacrifice Aero After Austria

Valtteri Bottas has urged Cadillac F1 Team to sacrifice some aerodynamic efficiency in favour of improved brake cooling after both team cars retired with brake fires during the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix.

Bottas and team-mate Sergio Perez were both forced out within the opening laps at the Red Bull Ring. The double retirement extended Cadillac's run of brake-related reliability problems after Bottas retired in Monaco with brake concerns and in Barcelona due to overheating, while Perez also experienced brake overheating during practice in Monaco.

According to Bottas, nothing during practice suggested such a severe problem would emerge. The team had completed long runs without abnormal brake temperatures before Sunday's race.

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"There was no warning. Everything was under control in practice. We completed more than 10 laps in a row, which is normally enough to reach peak temperatures before the race. But with the slight increase in temperatures and the traffic effect, everything suddenly caught fire. I only saw smoke before Turn 4, then after Turn 4 I saw the flames. It happened incredibly quickly," Bottas explained.

The Finnish driver believes Cadillac must now redesign parts of its brake cooling system. While acknowledging that larger brake ducts would reduce aerodynamic efficiency, he argued that finishing races is a far greater priority than protecting outright performance.

"It's clear we've got to redesign some components; otherwise we're not going to finish races. There will be an aerodynamic penalty with bigger brake cooling, but I'll happily accept that if it means finishing races. We have to start seeing the chequered flag because that's how we learn," he said.

Bottas described Austria as Cadillac's most disappointing weekend of the 2026 Formula 1 season. With both cars retiring after only a handful of laps, he stressed that hard work and technical improvements remain the team's only path forward ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.