Sergio Perez made a public warning to Cadillac after retiring from the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 due to an unusual suspension failure. The Mexican stated that the team still needs to improve operationally after the problem that ended his race in Montreal.
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Perez’s Sunday was complicated from the start of the race. Cadillac bet on intermediate tires for the start, but the choice quickly proved wrong as track conditions improved in the first laps.
The situation worsened on lap 42, when the Mexican driver suffered a failure in the front right suspension. The problem became evident on the long straight before the pit entry, with the car unbalanced and Perez needing to use the steering wheel heavily tilted.
When he slowed down to enter the pits, the suspension completely gave way. The failure scattered carbon fiber parts across the pit lane entrance and caused permanent damage to the Cadillac car.
Perez confirmed that there was no contact with the walls of the Canadian circuit and made it clear that the failure happened spontaneously. The driver expressed concern about the episode and demanded a quick response from the team.
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“It is something we need to understand and solve, because what is happening and what happened is not ideal. We need to investigate this and control the situation, because it really is not ideal,” said the Mexican.
Perez also highlighted that Cadillac still shows operational deficiencies despite performance improvements: “Operationally we are still leaving much to be desired, and we are not evolving in this aspect at the same speed as we are improving in performance. We need to maximize the car’s performance at this moment,” he concluded.
At the time of retirement, the Mexican was only in 16th position, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and battling position with Esteban Ocon. Regarding the choice of intermediate tires at the start, Perez admitted that the decision seemed balanced initially, but it quickly became clear that the team had chosen the wrong compound.
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