Cadillac has confirmed the cause of the brake problems that have badly affected its maiden Formula 1 season, including at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The sight of a Cadillac smoking at the side of the track has become all too familiar in 2026, as the team has battled overheating brakes throughout its debut season.
The American outfit, has found reliability rather than outright pace to be its biggest hurdle in year one, with the brake issue now a recurring theme across multiple rounds.
The issue has seen both Bottas and teammate Sergio Perez affected, with both stopping in the opening laps of the Austrian GP, the intense heat of that weekend compounding the issue.
That Austrian retirement was itself part of a longer pattern for Bottas, who had also suffered brake-related exits in Monaco and Barcelona earlier in the season.
Cadillac had hoped that introducing new brake ducts in Hungary would solve the problem; however, the issue resurfaced, leading to Bottas retiring in the pit lane as his brakes overheated once again.
The Finn’s left-front brake caught fire on lap 15 of the 70-lap race, forcing him to use the pit wall to help slow the car before parking it and tackling the blaze himself with a fire extinguisher, with no marshals immediately on hand.
Perez also failed to finish, though his retirement stemmed from a separate front suspension problem rather than the brakes. It marked Cadillac’s second double DNF of the season, following the identical outcome in Austria, and left Bottas as one of only three drivers yet to score a point in 2026.
After the race, the Finn attributed the issues to the heat in Hungary and the unique, corner heavy Hungaroring, a track notorious on brakes.
“That new front ducting was trying to address this issue and trying to prevent it from happening, but clearly we still need more airflow in the brakes,” he said.
“That’s clear from today. But again, it was quite extreme conditions [and an] extreme track.”
Valtteri Bottas explains brake problems
Explaining the origins of the problems, Bottas confirmed the overheating had a severe knock-on effect for the rest of the car, with no new fix coming when F1 returns in Zandvoort.
“So, the brakes, they just get too hot, and it gets to the point that inside everything starts to burn.
“And that obviously destroys everything. Actually, on the in lap, I lost the brakes fully because I think the brake lines must have burned. So, that’s why I had to stop the car against the wall.”
With the sport now entering its mandated summer shutdown before the Dutch Grand Prix on August 23, Cadillac will have limited opportunity to find a fix before the grid reconvenes at Zandvoort.
“I don’t think we’ll have anything for Zandvoort,” he said. “Well, hopefully something for the brakes, but nothing performance-related.
“But at some point, there’s going to be a point that we’re going to focus 100% for next year.”
Cadillac is enduring the growing pains every new team must go through as it begins life in F1. Repeated brake problems, even after new ducts were brought in shows there is still a long way to go yet.
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