Sergio Perez explains bizarre Cadillac F1 failure in Canadian GP

Sergio Perez has warned the Cadillac Formula 1 team to improve its operational strength after a bizarre suspension failure ended his Canadian Grand Prix.

Perez endured a miserable Sunday in Montreal, after a gamble on intermediate tyres at the start of the race backfired, before a dramatic suspension failure put him out of the race on lap 42.

On the long straight headed to the pit entry, the problem was evident, with the Mexican’s steering out of balance, and him driving significantly left hand down. But as he eased on the brakes, the Cadillac's front-right suspension buckled, spreading carbon fibre across the entry road and causing race-ending damage.

Confirming to Crash.net that he hadn’t made contact with any of the lurking walls and that this was a straight failure, Perez conceded that this was a worrying incident.

“It’s something that we have to understand and get on top of, because it’s not ideal what is happening and has happened,” he said.

“It’s something we need to investigate and hopefully get on top of, because it’s not ideal. I think, operationally, we are still lacking a lot, and we are not making the progress that we are making in terms of performance.

“So we need to be able to maximise the car performance at the moment.”

Perez was lapping in 16th place when the failure occurred, ahead of team-mate Bottas and battling with the Haas of Esteban Ocon after starting the race on intermediate tyres.

Asked about the decision not to start on dry tyres, a choice also made by McLaren, he added: “It was honestly 50:50 at that point. At that point, I felt like it had stopped raining a bit less, but it became a lot clearer that we were on the wrong tyre very early on.

“Within three laps, we killed them, and that was the biggest issue there. But we managed to recover.

“We had some good pace out there, some good fights with the Haas. We overtook the Haas, and unfortunately, we had a suspension failure at the end.”