'The worst weekend' - Perez slams 'unacceptable' backwards step at Austrian Grand Prix

Sergio Perez slammed the 'unacceptable' reliability issues that plagued Cadillac at the Austrian Grand Prix over the weekend.

Cadillac hoped the race weekend would be the ideal opportunity to prove they meant business after they introduced a significant upgrade to their aerodynamic package.

However, the race quickly unravelled into a nightmare as both Perez and teammate Valtteri Bottas were forced to retire within the opening four laps due to brake issues. Bottas entered the pits early to complain his brakes were on fire, after he had experienced a similar issue in practice, before Perez had to withdraw with the same issue.

It was the latest setback for Cadillac after Perez suffered from suspension issues during the Canadian Grand Prix, and Bottas had another brake issue during practice for the Barcelona Grand Prix.

Instead of taking a step forward, the American automaker has taken a massive step back, much to the frustration of Perez.

“It's a bit unfortunate what happened today,” the experienced Mexican driver admitted. “I think we underestimated the effect of traffic. 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 the coming races.

"We had a good start. We were looking good out there, and unfortunately, we just didn't progress enough and that meant that we were in the fight, we were fighting [Alex] Albon.

"We overtook him, he overtook us back, things were looking good for us but unfortunately, we had to retire quite early. It looked like we had a bit more pace to compete with the others, so it's a little bit of a shame."

There were always going to be significant teething issues for Cadillac in their first Formula 1 season and Perez acknowledges that it is still a learning process as they approach the summer break.

However, he reiterated that they would only be able to make improvements if they actually managed to keep their cars on the track in the first place.

He added: “Of course, it is frustrating. But the most frustrating thing is not to see progress. I think we always expected these things to occur in 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 efficiencies, and I do expect a massive step forward in reliability going to Silverstone."