Sergio Perez escaped a fresh Austrian Grand Prix penalty after FIA stewards ruled that his Cadillac moved before the start signal, but decided not to impose a sanction because the car had already retired.
The late decision, issued after Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, confirmed that Perez’s car moved before the start signal at 15:03 during the race. The stewards said that type of offence would normally warrant a five-second penalty.
However, with Perez already out of the grand prix by the time the matter was referred, the panel ruled that adding a time penalty would serve no practical purpose. The FIA’s final classification listed Perez as not classified after completing four laps.
Cadillac’s Austria weekend unravels further
The decision added another uncomfortable layer to a grim Sunday for Cadillac. Formula 1 reported that both Perez and Valtteri Bottas were out after only a handful of laps, while the FIA race report cited early brake problems for both cars.
It followed a difficult qualifying story already covered by ReadMotoSport, with Cadillac’s Austria update falling flat as Perez and Bottas lined up on the back row.
For Perez, the outcome is technically a reprieve, but it hardly softens the wider issue. Cadillac arrived in Austria with upgrades and a need for mileage; instead, its race collapsed before either driver could build a meaningful read on the package.
The false-start finding also carried an awkward echo from Monaco, where Perez lost Cadillac’s first Formula 1 point to a post-race penalty. This time the sporting consequence disappeared because the race had already gone, but the procedural scrutiny did not.
Cadillac’s next task is blunt: turn development talk into reliable race distance before another marginal incident becomes expensive rather than academic.
