Cadillac driver Sergio Perez escaped a five-second penalty from the FIA stewards due to his retirement from the Austrian Grand Prix, it has emerged.
Despite introducing a sizeable upgrade package, Cadillac suffered a double retirement in Austria with Perez and teammate Valtteri Bottas withdrawing due to brake problems.
Sergio Perez escapes FIA penalty after Austrian Grand Prix DNF
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Bottas retired after two laps of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring with a brake fire, with Perez also dropping out two laps later.
Perez found himself under investigation for moving on the grid before the start signal was given.
The breach would normally see a driver hit with a five-second penalty.
Yet because Perez retired from the race and an unserved penalty for a breach of this nature does not carry over to the next race in the form of a grid drop, the Mexican driver avoided punishment for his start infringement.
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The stewards’ report read: “The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data and in-car video evidence.
“The car moved before the start signal was given. This normally warrants a 5 second penalty (which would not convert into a grid drop for the next race).
“However, as the car had already retired from the race at the time the incident was brought to the attention of the Stewards, it does not seem appropriate to apply any time penalty.
“Therefore the Stewards decide not to impose any penalty.”
Cadillac had previously suffered brake troubles in Monaco, where Perez was denied the team’s first F1 point after a penalty for a start infringement.
Perez told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the Austrian Grand Prix: “It’s a bit unfortunate what happened today.
“I think we underestimated the effect of traffic and we’ve been having issues all weekend.
“I think it’s been the worst weekend. It feels like we took four or five steps backwards, so there needs to be a massive process thinking on how we’re doing things, especially when it comes to upgrades, because today what happened was totally unacceptable and very unfortunate as well for the team.
“I’m sure that we will be able to sort it out for coming races.”
Asked if Cadillac had been managing brakes throughout the weekend, he replied: “No, not really. I think it was just a traffic thing that overexaggerated this.
“Obviously it’s frustrating because we wanted to see how was the performance in the race, what we were able to do, how were things [with the upgrades], but unfortunately we didn’t get the chance.”
Put to him that Cadillac has suffered a number of setbacks, including the brake issues in Monaco and his own spectacular suspension failure in Canada, Perez said: “Of course it is frustrating.
“But the most frustrating thing is not to see progress.
“I think we always expected these things to occur to a new team, obviously, but I think the frustration comes from the lack of progress.
“So I’m sure that this upgrade will help us to understand a lot of those deficiencies and I do expect a massive step forward in reliability going to Silverstone.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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