Valtteri Bottas has called on Cadillac to sacrifice some aerodynamic efficiency to ensure its brakes can survive the rigours of a grand prix.
Both Bottas and team-mate Sergio Perez were eliminated in the opening laps of the Austrian Grand Prix with brake fires, with it being Bottas's third consecutive retirement.
He dropped out in Monaco due to brake concerns, before overheating took him out in Barcelona, with Perez also suffering a brake overheating issue in practice in Monaco.
Labelling the Austria weekend the most "disappointing" of the season, Bottas felt the team should trade off aerodynamics efficiency for bigger braking cooling vents to try to stop the problem and allow the team to perform.
"There was no warning, like everything was under control in practice, we did more than 10 laps in a row, and that is normally more than enough to get peak temperatures for the beginning of the race," Bottas explained to media, including RacingNews365.
"But with the slight increase in temperatures, and then with the traffic effect, things just caught on fire, and it is a big issue. It was really sudden, like I only got the smoke before Turn 4, and then out of Turn 4, I saw the fire, and it was really rapid.
"It is clear that we've got to re-design some bits; otherwise, we're not going to finish races.
"But there will be an aerodynamic cost to using a bigger brake, but I'll take that penalty to finish a race. We've got to start finishing races; that's when we learn.
"It was probably the most disappointing race of the season, both cars out only a few laps in, so the only thing we can do is work hard, and that's going to be the only solution to move forward."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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