The Formula 1 team building its North American home right here in Fishers endured one of its worst afternoons of a difficult rookie season Sunday, as both Cadillac cars caught fire and retired in the opening laps of the Austrian Grand Prix.
On a scorching day at the Red Bull Ring — air temperatures around 34°C (93°F) and track temperatures reported as high as 61°C (142°F) — Cadillac’s overheating brakes proved its undoing. Finnish veteran Valtteri Bottas was first to report trouble just a handful of laps in, telling his team his brakes were on fire before pulling into the pits, where crews sprayed his car with extinguishing foam. Moments later, on lap five, teammate Sergio Pérez radioed that he had smoke in the cockpit and brought his car in too. The team quickly confirmed both retirements were caused by overheated brakes.
It was the kind of double DNF — “did not finish” — that no team wants, and a particularly bitter one for an outfit that had brought a substantial upgrade package to Austria hoping to close the gap to the rest of the field. Pérez and Bottas had qualified 19th and 20th on Saturday, ahead of only the two Aston Martins, and any chance to convert that into progress on Sunday went up in smoke before either driver completed five competitive laps. Pérez was also briefly noted by stewards for moving before the start signal, though he ultimately escaped punishment.
The fires were part of a wider theme of heat-related drama in Spielberg. Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson also reported a fire in his car during the same opening stint — “I’m still on fire,” he radioed on lap five — but carried on, and even race-winning machinery wasn’t immune, with Lewis Hamilton later instructed to change engine modes for temperature reasons.
At the front, Mercedes’ George Russell converted pole position into his second victory of the season, holding off an early challenge from Hamilton’s Ferrari and late pressure from Max Verstappen, who recovered to second. Rookie sensation Kimi Antonelli completed the podium in third and continues to lead the drivers’ championship.
Why this one stings for Cadillac — and for Fishers
Cadillac arrived in Formula 1 this year as the grid’s 11th team and its only American constructor, and the early going has been every bit as hard as the racing world predicted for a brand-new operation. The team sits rock bottom of the constructors’ standings and is still chasing its first world championship point. It came agonizingly close at Monaco earlier this season, only for a late penalty to Pérez to hand that point to rivals Aston Martin instead.
For readers in Fishers, this is more than a far-away race result. Cadillac’s North American headquarters is rising right now off the east side of town, on the site near the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport between East 96th and East 106th streets, west of Hague Road. The roughly $200 million, 400,000-square-foot campus is expected to employ around 300 people in high-tech motorsport and engineering jobs and to become the team’s manufacturing and R&D base. While the facility is finished out — the team is currently running its 2026 race operation out of Silverstone in England — the Fishers campus is on track to be fully operational in early 2027.
In other words, the cars that limped into the Red Bull Ring pit lane on Sunday represent a program whose American heart will soon beat in our community. The growing pains are real: a winless, pointless first half of the season, reliability gremlins, and a pair of cars on fire on international television. But every established team on today’s grid started somewhere, and the people of Fishers will have a front-row seat as Cadillac tries to turn early adversity into the foundation of an American F1 contender.
Next up is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 5, where Cadillac will look to put a forgettable Austrian weekend behind it and finally chase down that elusive first point.