The 2026 Formula 1 calendar gets underway this week after an enforced hiatus, with the Miami Grand Prix being billed as the de‑facto launch of a "new championship". This marks the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 that all teams will be back on the circuit together, gathering at the Miami International Autodrome on Friday. The five‑week pause was originally meant to accommodate the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds, but both events were cancelled, leaving a sizable gap in the planned 24‑race schedule.
Miami now hosts the fourth race weekend of the year and the second Sprint event, but the month‑long break has given every outfit a chance to tinker with their brand‑new 2026 cars. Since Mercedes‑driven Kimi Antonelli seized the championship lead with a win at Suzuka, teams have been hard at work in their factories, meaning the return to racing is expected to feel different from the opening three meetings.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose squad has been Mercedes' closest challenger before the interruption, described the upcoming weekend as another fresh start to the campaign. "Everyone will bring new upgrades to Miami," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy from Suzuka. "They’ll have time to work on the software, which is why I said a new championship will start." Mercedes boss Toto Wolff echoed that sentiment, noting that his Silver Arrows have won all three races and the solitary Sprint so far, but the break offers a chance for rivals to close the gap.
"Teams have learned, drivers are starting to learn how to optimise these systems to their benefit and we saw the first indication in Japan that looked like a home run in the first two races but isn’t the case and we’ve always won," Wolff said. "Miami is going to be for me also a restart. How are the upgrades going to work that people are bringing? How have we optimised all the other systems?
It’s going to be exciting." The original schedule had Bahrain on 12 April and Saudi Arabia on 19 April, but both were scrapped for safety reasons linked to the Middle‑East conflict. With no feasible replacements and no other races slated for April, the series was forced into an unscheduled five‑week lull – the longest in‑season interval since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season, if summer and winter shutdowns are excluded. Unlike those mandated factory shutdowns, the current pause allowed the eleven teams to continue development behind closed doors throughout April. The $215 million (£159 million) budget cap and aerodynamic testing limits remained in force, as did the ban on full in‑season track testing, though limited running was permitted during Pirelli test days and filming sessions.
Development programmes for the early‑season cars had already been mapped out before the Middle‑East events were cancelled, but the extra time in the workshops undoubtedly gave engineers across the grid the opportunity to refine and enhance their packages ahead of Miami and the subsequent Canadian Grand Prix. McLaren, for instance, has long viewed Miami as a showcase for a major upgrade – the Woking factory introduced a game‑changing aerodynamic package there in 2024. Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, said the revised calendar actually helped the team concentrate on a comprehensive overhaul for the North‑American races. "In our intent there was always the idea to deliver sort of a completely new car, especially from an aerodynamic upgrades point of view, for the North American races.
The calendar change helped all teams work more streamlined towards upgrading the car rather than being busy with racing. Across Miami and Canada we will see an entirely new MCL40," Stella explained. He added that the real test will be to see which competitors can extract the most performance from their upgrades within the same timeframe, noting that both Mercedes and Ferrari still have areas to recover.
Consequently, Friday’s on‑track action will be dominated by the variety of upgrade packages each team brings, how those changes translate into lap times, and whether any significant reshuffling of the pecking order occurs. Teams that struggled early – such as Aston Martin and Williams – will hope the break allowed them to make larger relative gains. At the same time, the pause gave every outfit a chance to digest the massive data haul generated by the three opening weekends of the complex 2026 machinery.
That data will inform not only aerodynamic priorities for the rest of the year but also strategies for operating the power units and managing tyre wear over a race weekend. Drivers, meanwhile, have used the unexpected free time to focus on fitness, simulator work, and fine‑tuning their driving styles to suit the evolving cars. Technical directors have also been in talks with the FIA about regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced from Miami onward. One key area of change concerns the power‑unit regulations, specifically energy deployment.
The adjustments aim to make qualifying laps more naturally flat‑out and to reduce drastic closing speed differentials during races, thereby improving safety and competition. To accommodate these new parameters, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend has been extended from the usual 60 minutes to 90 minutes, giving teams extra track time to adapt. Mercedes currently sit atop both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, having secured three wins in the first three race weekends.
Their lead over second‑placed Ferrari stands at 45 points, while McLaren, the reigning champions, sit 89 points behind in third place after a strong second‑place finish at Suzuka. Red Bull, Haas and Alpine occupy the lower midfield, with Red Bull trailing in sixth with just 16 points.
On the drivers’ ladder, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli surprisingly leads the standings with 72 points, ahead of Mercedes veteran George Russell (63 points) after Antonelli’s back‑to‑back victories in the opening races. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc occupies third place, 23 points adrift of Antonelli, with teammate Lewis Hamilton four points further back in fourth.
Lando Norris, the reigning champion, sits fifth on 25 points, followed by Oscar Piastri (21 points) and Max Verstappen (12 points), who has struggled to find pace under the new regulations. The weekend schedule is packed: Thursday features a drivers’ press conference at 7 pm, followed by a paddock show at 10 pm. Friday includes F2 practice, the Miami GP practice session at 5 pm (extended to 90 minutes), F2 qualifying, a team bosses’ press conference, and the Sprint qualifying.
Saturday sees the F2 sprint, the Sprint race itself, and the Sprint qualifying, while Sunday hosts the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix build‑up, the main race, and post‑race analysis. All events will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 and can be streamed via NOW without a contract.
In summary, the Miami Grand Prix is not merely the resumption of the 2026 season; it is being framed as a fresh starting line for a championship that has already seen significant upheaval. With a month of unrestricted development behind them, every team will arrive with new aerodynamic parts, software updates, and strategic insights. Whether Mercedes can maintain their early dominance, Ferrari can close the gap, or a surprise challenger can emerge from the extended break remains to be seen, but the stage is set for an exciting and potentially transformative weekend in Miami.