The 2026 Formula One calendar is back in motion after a forced hiatus in April, with the Miami Grand Prix serving as the de‑facto kick‑off for what many are calling a fresh "championship". This marks the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 that all teams will be on the circuit together, gathering at the Miami International Autodrome on Friday after a five‑week lull that resulted from the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds originally slated in the 24‑race schedule.
Miami now hosts the fourth weekend of the season and the second Sprint event, but the month‑long break has given every outfit a rare window to tinker with their brand‑new 2026 machines back at their factories. Since Mercedes’ rookie Kimi Antonelli seized the early lead in the drivers’ standings with a win at Suzuka, the return to racing is expected to feel markedly different from the opening three rounds.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose squad has been the closest challenger to Mercedes before the pause, described the upcoming race as another start to the campaign. "Everyone will bring new upgrades to Miami," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy, adding that teams will have had time to refine their software, which is why he believes a "new championship" is about to begin. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff echoed the sentiment, noting that the Silver Arrows have dominated the early part of the year, winning all three races and the sole Sprint so far.
"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 plan had seen a race in Bahrain on 12 April, followed by Saudi Arabia a week later, but both events were scrapped on safety grounds due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
With no feasible alternatives and no other April dates on the calendar, the series was forced into an unscheduled five‑week intermission – the longest in‑season gap since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season, if summer and winter breaks are excluded. Unlike the mandated summer shutdowns that require teams to close their factories, the April break allowed all eleven teams to continue development behind closed doors. The $215 million (£159 million) budget cap and the aerodynamic testing restrictions remained in force, as did the ban on full in‑season track testing (though limited runs were permitted during filming days and Pirelli test sessions).
Consequently, designers and engineers have been able to fine‑tune the packages they prepared for the early season, and the extra time is expected to yield significant performance gains for the Miami weekend and beyond. McLaren, for example, has always viewed Miami as an ideal venue to debut a major aerodynamic upgrade – a strategy that paid off when the Woking factory introduced a game‑changing package in 2024. Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, explained that the revised calendar actually helped the team concentrate on delivering a "completely new car" for the North American races. "We could keep up with this plan, obviously the fact that the calendar has been changed sort of helped a little bit like I’m sure helped all the other teams that could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car rather than being busy with racing," Stella said.
He added that both Miami and the subsequent Canadian Grand Prix should showcase an "entirely new MCL40" and that the real test will be to see which competitors can extract the most performance from their upgrades within the same timeframe. The focus on Friday will therefore be on how the various upgrade packages translate into lap times and whether any dramatic reshuffling of the pecking order occurs. Teams that struggled early on – such as Aston Martin and Williams – will be hoping the break has allowed them to make bigger relative gains. At the same time, the pause has given every outfit a chance to digest the massive amount of data generated by the three opening rounds of the highly complex 2026 cars.
That data will inform not only aerodynamic development but also strategies for operating the power units and managing tyre wear over a race weekend. Drivers, too, have benefited from the unexpected downtime.
Beyond maintaining their physical fitness, many have spent extensive hours in simulators, working with engineers to refine their understanding of the new car dynamics and to tailor their driving styles for Miami’s street circuit. Meanwhile, technical directors have been in ongoing talks with the FIA and Formula One management about regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced at Miami. The most notable changes affect power‑unit energy deployment, aiming to make qualifying laps feel more naturally flat‑out and to reduce abrupt speed differentials during races. In response to these adjustments and the five‑week hiatus, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend has been extended from the usual 60 minutes to 90 minutes, giving teams and drivers ample opportunity to adapt to the revised parameters.
Mercedes currently sit atop both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, having secured three wins from the first three race weekends. Their lead over second‑placed Ferrari stands at 45 points, while McLaren, despite a strong second place at Suzuka, sit 89 points behind the champions in third. Red Bull find themselves further down the order, occupying sixth place with just 16 points. On the drivers’ ladder, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli surprisingly leads the standings with 72 points, followed by George Russell on 63 points.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc occupies third place, 23 points adrift of Antonelli, with teammate Lewis Hamilton a further eight points behind. Lando Norris, the reigning champion, sits fifth with 25 points, Oscar Piastri sixth with 21, and Max Verstappen ninth with 12 points, reflecting Red Bull’s early‑season struggles. The schedule for the Miami weekend is packed: a press conference on Thursday, F2 practice and qualifying sessions, the Sprint race on Saturday, and the Grand Prix on Sunday, all broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 and available to stream via NOW without a contract.
As the paddock prepares for what many describe as a fresh start, fans can anticipate a weekend filled with new parts, fresh strategies, and the potential for a reshaped championship narrative as the 2026 season truly gets underway.