The 2026 Formula 1 calendar gets back into motion this week after a forced hiatus, with the Miami Grand Prix being billed as the effective kick‑off of a "new championship". For the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix on 29 March, all of the teams will be on the track together on Friday at the Miami International Autodrome, ending a five‑week lull that arose when the originally planned Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds were scrapped from the 24‑race schedule. Miami now marks the fourth race 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.
Since Mercedes youngster Kimi Antonelli seized the championship lead with a win at Suzuka, the return to racing is expected to look quite different from the opening three meetings. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose squad has been the nearest challenger to the dominant Mercedes, described the situation as "another start to the season". "Everyone will bring fresh upgrades to Miami," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy after Suzuka.
"They will have time to work on the software, which is why I said a new championship will start." Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff echoed the sentiment, noting that his Silver Arrows have claimed all three victories and the sole Sprint win so far, but that the break gives rivals a chance to close the gap. "Teams have learned, drivers are starting to learn how to optimise these systems to their benefit and we've seen that 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 two weeks later by a Saudi Arabian round on 19 April. Both events were cancelled for safety reasons linked to the Middle‑East conflict, leaving a five‑week gap with no viable replacement venues. Apart from the usual summer and winter shutdowns, this is the longest in‑season pause since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season. Unlike the regulated factory closures that occur during the August summer break and the off‑season, the teams were free 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‑season on‑track testing (though limited running was permitted on filming days and Pirelli test sessions). The extended factory time allowed engineers across the grid to refine the packages they had already mapped out for early 2026, and many used the interval to introduce significant aerodynamic and power‑unit upgrades. McLaren, for example, had always seen Miami as an ideal venue to debut a major upgrade – the Woking factory rolled out a game‑changing package at the 2024 Miami race.
Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, said the revised calendar actually helped the team focus on a "completely new car" for the North‑American swing. "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. He added that the team expects to showcase an "entirely new MCL40" across Miami and the subsequent Canadian Grand Prix. The spotlight on Friday will therefore be on the upgrade packages each team brings, how those changes translate into lap times, and whether any major reshuffle of the pecking order occurs.
Teams that struggled early, such as Aston Martin and Williams, will be hoping the break has allowed them to make larger relative gains. Beyond hardware, the pause gave every crew a chance to digest the massive amount of data generated during the first three race weekends with the complex 2026 cars. That information has fed into decisions about which aerodynamic elements to prioritise, how to manage the new power‑unit energy deployment rules, and the optimal setup for both qualifying and race conditions.
Drivers, too, have used the time to improve fitness, spend extra hours in simulators, and work closely with engineers to fine‑tune their driving styles for the new machinery. Meanwhile, technical directors have been in talks with the FIA about regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced from Miami onward.
The latest power‑unit amendments focus on smoothing energy deployment, aiming to let drivers attack a qualifying lap more naturally and to reduce drastic closing speeds during races. Because of those changes, the sole practice session at Miami – the only on‑track session of the Sprint weekend – has been lengthened from 60 to 90 minutes, giving teams and drivers additional time to adapt to the revised parameters. Mercedes head into the Miami weekend still leading both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, having won three of the first three races.
Their lead over second‑placed Ferrari stands at 45 points, while McLaren sit 89 points behind in third place, buoyed by a strong second‑place finish at Suzuka. Red Bull find themselves down in sixth, trailing Haas and Alpine with just 16 points. On the drivers' side, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli surprisingly tops the standings with 72 points, followed by George Russell on 63 points.
Charles Leclerc is third for Ferrari, 23 points adrift of Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton fourth, Lando Norris fifth, Oscar Piastri sixth, and Max Verstappen ninth as Red Bull grapple with early‑season pace issues. The schedule for the weekend is packed: Thursday features a drivers' press conference, Friday hosts F2 practice, the Miami GP practice, F2 qualifying and the Sprint qualifying, Saturday includes the F2 Sprint, the Miami Sprint and its build‑up, and Sunday culminates with the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix itself and post‑race analysis.
All sessions will be streamed live on Sky Sports F1, with the option to watch via NOW without a contract. In summary, the Miami Grand Prix is not just the resumption of racing after an unprecedented break; it is being treated as a fresh start to the 2026 campaign. With a month of unrestricted development behind them, every team arrives with new parts, software updates, and strategic insights.
Whether those upgrades will reshuffle the hierarchy or simply reinforce the current order remains to be seen, but the excitement surrounding what many are calling a "new championship" is palpable across the paddock.