The 2026 Formula 1 calendar gets moving again this week after a forced hiatus in April, with the Miami Grand Prix being billed as the de‑facto launch of a "new championship". For the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on 29 March, all of the teams will line up on the same circuit on Friday, marking the end of a five‑week lull that was originally meant to be filled by the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds.
Those events were scrapped for safety reasons amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East, leaving a gap in the schedule that has never been seen in a modern season outside of the traditional summer and winter breaks. Miami now hosts the fourth race weekend of the year and the second Sprint weekend, but the month‑long break has given every outfit a rare window to tinker with their brand‑new 2026 cars back at their factories. Mercedes' rookie Kimi Antonelli took the lead in the drivers' standings with a win at Suzuka, so the return to racing is expected to feel different from the opening three meetings.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose squad has been the closest challenger to the Silver Arrows, described the situation as "another start to the season". "Everyone will bring fresh upgrades to Miami," he told Sky Sports Italy, adding that teams will have had time to refine the software packages that underpin the new aerodynamic concepts, which is why he believes a new championship is about to begin. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff echoed the sentiment, noting that his team has already claimed three race victories and a Sprint win, but that the Miami weekend will be a true test of how the upgrades from the break translate into on‑track performance.
"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 the championship move straight from Suzuka to Bahrain on 12 April and then to Saudi Arabia a week later.
With both events cancelled and no feasible replacements, the calendar was forced into an unprecedented five‑week pause. Apart from the summer holiday and the off‑season winter shutdown, this is the longest in‑season interval since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season. Unlike the regulated factory closures that occur during the summer break, the teams were allowed to keep their workshops open throughout April, albeit behind closed doors and under the constraints of the $215 million budget cap and strict aerodynamic testing limits. Full‑scale on‑track testing remained banned, though limited running was permitted during filming sessions and Pirelli tyre tests.
The extra time at the factory has been a boon for designers and engineers across the grid. Development schedules for the early‑season packages had already been set before the Middle Eastern races were called off, but the unexpected window has enabled many teams to fine‑tune their concepts, test new parts virtually and even produce physical components that might not have been ready otherwise.
McLaren, for example, has long viewed Miami as a showcase for a major aerodynamic upgrade, recalling the game‑changing package they unveiled at their Woking base in 2024. Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, confirmed that the team intends to bring a substantially revised version of the MCL40 to the United States and then to Canada three weeks later. "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 explained. "Overall, across Miami and Canada we will see an entirely new MCL40." With the field likely to arrive in Miami sporting a variety of upgrade packages, the focus will be on how these changes affect lap times and whether they trigger a reshuffle of the pecking order.
Teams that have struggled early on – Aston Martin and Williams, for instance – will be hoping the break has allowed them to close the performance gap. Equally important, the pause has given every outfit a chance to digest the massive amount of data generated by the first three race weekends, data that is crucial for understanding the complex 2026 regulations, especially the new aerodynamic concepts and power‑unit energy deployment rules.
Drivers have also used the downtime to work on their physical conditioning and to spend extensive hours in simulators, refining their understanding of the new cars’ handling characteristics. Technical chiefs have been busy behind the scenes, negotiating with the FIA on a handful of regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced from Miami onward. The most notable changes affect the power‑unit's energy deployment, aiming to make qualifying laps more naturally flat‑out and to reduce the dramatic closing speeds that have sometimes caused safety concerns during races. Because of these adjustments, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend in Miami will be lengthened from the usual 60 minutes to 90 minutes, giving drivers and engineers extra track time to adapt to the revised parameters.
Mercedes currently sit atop both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, having secured three wins in as many weekends. Their lead over Ferrari is 45 points, while McLaren sit 89 points behind in third place, buoyed by a strong second‑place finish at Suzuka.
Red Bull, Haas and Alpine occupy the lower midfield, with Red Bull surprisingly down in sixth with just 16 points. In the drivers' standings, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli leads the pack with 72 points, followed by George Russell on 63 points, Charles Leclerc in third, Lewis Hamilton in fourth, Lando Norris fifth, Oscar Piastri sixth and Max Verstappen ninth. The upcoming Miami weekend will therefore be a critical moment for all teams: a chance to confirm whether the upgrades and data analysis performed during the break can translate into on‑track advantage, and whether the "new championship" narrative holds true as the season moves into its next phase.