Cadillac vow full investigation after Bottas suspension failure at high speed in Mexico

Valtteri Bottas walked away from a high-speed crash at the Mexico City Grand Prix after his front-left suspension collapsed as he braked for Turn 1 on lap 46 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, sending his Cadillac MAC-26 into the TecPro barrier. The impact was severe enough to prompt a red flag while marshals repaired the barriers, with Bottas remaining in the car to compose himself before being cleared at the medical centre.

Team radio posted on social media captured the extent of Bottas’s frustration. Asked by race engineer John Howard whether he was OK, the Finn — audibly agitated and using repeated expletives — replied simply: “F**k no.”

Bottas was excused from immediate media duties following his medical check-up, but addressed the incident in Cadillac’s post-race debrief. “It was a big impact going into Turn 1, but thankfully I’m OK,” he said. “We need to work through everything thoroughly as a team to understand exactly what happened, and make sure we learn from it. We had a strong opening lap and made up some places, so it’s disappointing not to finish another race. We’ll regroup now and focus on continuing to make progress in Sao Paulo next week.”

Team principal Marcin Budkowski was unequivocal in his response. “Everyone is relieved that Valtteri is OK after the incident on lap 46,” he said. “We will fully investigate the cause of this failure and ensure such accidents do not happen again.”

Bottas and team-mate Sergio Perez have endured a string of reliability failures across Cadillac’s maiden F1 season, though none had previously resulted in a crash of this nature. Sunday’s incident represented a significant escalation in the team’s mechanical troubles.

On the other side of the garage, Perez delivered a more encouraging afternoon in front of his home crowd, marking his 300th Formula 1 race start. The Mexican climbed to 13th in the opening stages and held his position, but a slow pit stop and a subsequent pitlane speeding penalty — attributed to a software issue — undermined what had otherwise been Cadillac’s most competitive showing of the season. The team heads to the São Paulo Grand Prix next weekend looking for answers on both reliability and pace.