FORMULA ONE’S newest team Cadillac are braced to finish last in their debut season with boss Graeme Lowdon claiming their rivals will be “apoplectic” if they beat them.

Cadillac’s long-anticipated entry for 2026 was finally rubber-stamped in March providing them with a year to get ready for next season’s opener in Australia.

Cadillac, a division of American motoring giant General Motors, will be supported by TWG Motorsports and powered by Ferrari before it develops its own engines.

They will become the first new constructor in a decade with one of four bases at Silverstone – the venue for this weekend’s British Grand Prix – as well as Indiana, North Carolina and Michigan in the United States.

But despite the heavyweight backing of GM, British team principal Lowdon warned: “We have had discussions with our shareholders about what expectations should be, and the easiest way I can describe it to them is, can you imagine if you have owned a Formula One team for 10 years and another team rocks up and beats you? You would be apoplectic, so annoyed, so you have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last, otherwise what has gone wrong somewhere else?

“We want to be as competitive as we can but we have to be realistic, too. We see the numbers and we are happy with our progress. But we don’t know where we will be other than if we beat someone, then they are going to be angry.

“There is no real magic to Formula One. It is just very, very difficult. The reason it is so difficult is because everyone is doing the same thing on the same day, and that is something that TWG and GM fully understand. We are partnering with a manufacturer that understands racing. You just tell them the truth.”

Cadillac’s arrival as the 11th team on the grid will open up two driver vacancies. Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton’s former wingman, is understood to be interested in a return to a full-time seat (he is currently reserve driver at Mercedes) in F1.

Sergio Perez, dropped by Red Bull at the end of last year, and former Formula Two champion Felipe Drugovich, have also been linked. Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu, who raced with Alfa Romeo and Sauber across three seasons, is another in the frame.

But Lowdon continued: “Nothing is decided yet. There is a very strong argument to say that a new team in its first year of racing would benefit hugely from drivers who are experienced.

“We know who is in the market, and we have got a good idea of what we need, but we are some way off reaching that stage of finalising our line-up.”