Cadillac confirms findings after investigation into Sergio Perez suspension failure

Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon has confirmed that the team “fully understands” the cause of Sergio Perez’s spectacular suspension failure after a post-Canadian Grand Prix investigation.

And he has revealed that a failure had already occurred before Perez hit the brakes in Montreal, claiming the incident “looked significantly more dramatic” than it was.

Cadillac ‘fully understands’ Sergio Perez suspension failure at Canadian Grand Prix

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Perez registered his first retirement of the F1 2026 season in Canada, where he stopped after 39 laps.

The Mexican driver’s front-right suspension suffered a spectacular failure as he returned to the pit lane, with onboard footage showing Perez steering left while travelling in a straight line moments before the breakage.

Perez’s failure drew some comparisons to the famous suspension failure suffered by then-Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi in 2010, when both sides of the front suspension exploded simultaneously when the brakes were applied.

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Lowdon has confirmed that Cadillac has “already addressed” the issue that resulted in Perez’s incident, insisting that it was nothing “out of the ordinary.”

Asked if the team had found the reason behind Perez’s suspension failure, and invited to outline his hopes ahead of next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, he told PlanetF1.com and other select media: “In terms of the issue that Checo had in Montreal, we fully understand what happened there.

“It looked significantly more dramatic because there was that onboard picture where there was quite a bit of stuff flying around – that’s primarily the brakes.

“There was already a failure ahead of that and then as soon as the brakes get applied, there’s nothing securing the brakes to the level that they need to be, so you then end up with something that looks quite dramatic at the end of it.

“But the root cause we understand [and] it’s something that has already been addressed.

“So if the question was ‘are we concerned about Monaco after that’, no.

“I think pretty much every team’s seen something similar in the past, so I don’t think it was anything too out of the ordinary.”

On the challenge posed by Monaco, Lowdon pointed out that the experience of Perez and teammate Valtteri Bottas, who made their F1 debuts in 2011 and 2013 respectively, will be “a big plus point” for Cadillac.

Perez is a previous winner of the Monaco Grand Prix having tasted victory in 2022, with Bottas recording a best finish of third in the 2019 race.

Lowdon said: “You’re always optimistic – you have to be optimistic.

“It’s a very challenging circuit, it’s an outlier in so many ways.

“I think we’ve got drivers who know their way around the streets of Monaco pretty well, so that’s always a big plus point.

“It’ll be our sixth ever grand prix, so we’re going to look forward to it for sure.

“We ain’t tired of any of this yet, that’s for sure!”

Lowdon’s latest comments come after he moved to reject rumours that Bottas could be replaced ahead of Monaco following a challenging start to the season.

PlanetF1.com revealed on Thursday that suggestions that Bottas could be replaced by test driver Colton Herta were wide of the mark.

Speaking on Friday, Lowdon confirmed that there is “no foundation of truth in any of the rumours at all.”

He went on to claim that media publications suggesting that Herta could step into Bottas’s seat demonstrate a limited knowledge of Formula 1 given that the American driver does not yet hold an FIA superlicence to compete.

Lowdon said: “In terms of rumours – and to be honest, I haven’t read all of them – a few that I’ve read just don’t even seem to take into account some of the absolute basic rules of Formula 1, because some of them suggest they would put Colton in to replace Valtteri in the next few races or whatever.

“Colton doesn’t have any super license points [sic] and, to some extent, that probably says it all about the quality of some of the rumours.

“But I prefer not to focus on pointing out the obvious. I think the fans can see through all of that.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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