Cadillac faces electrical and overheating issues in Austria

Cadillac endured a challenging Friday practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix, with both Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas experiencing significant issues. The team had introduced a substantial upgrade package for their F1 car this weekend, aiming to improve their competitiveness.

Perez was sidelined by an electrical problem during the first free practice session, which caused him to stop on track and briefly halted running. He managed only 14 laps in FP1 and a further two in FP2 before further trouble ended his day. "We don't really know what is the issue on my side, so we're going to be changing pretty much everything on the electrical side to make sure for tomorrow we can have a clean day because we have a lot of work ahead of us," Perez stated.

Bottas also faced difficulties in the second session, with an overheating issue forcing him to return to the pits with sparks visible. He completed just six laps. Despite the setbacks, Cadillac's Chief Technical Officer Nick Chester noted that the performance indications from the new upgrade package were positive. "The indications we had from FP1 were actually we've made a bit of a step with it, so that's good performance wise," Chester commented, while acknowledging the extensive work required to resolve the reliability concerns.