The 2026 Formula 1 calendar gets back under way this week after a forced pause 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 on 29 March, all of the teams will be back on the circuit together on Friday at the Miami International Autodrome, ending a five‑week hiatus that resulted from the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds originally slated in the 24‑race schedule. Miami now marks the fourth race weekend of the year and the second Sprint event, but the month‑long break has given every outfit a rare window to tinker with their brand‑new 2026 cars in the factories. Since Mercedes‑driven Kimi Antonelli claimed the early championship lead with his victory at Suzuka, the return to competition is expected to feel a little different from the opening three meetings.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose squad has been the closest challenger to Mercedes before the pause, said the weekend will feel like another fresh start to the season. "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 team boss Toto Wolff echoed that sentiment, noting that his Silver Arrows have won all three races and the one Sprint so far, but that the break gives all teams a chance to catch up.
"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 F1 race in Bahrain on 12 April, two weeks after Suzuka, before moving straight to Saudi Arabia on 19 April. Both events were called off on safety grounds because of the conflict in the Middle East. With no viable alternatives and no other races pencilled in for April, the calendar ended up with an unscheduled five‑week gap – the longest in‑season interval since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season, if summer and winter breaks are excluded.
Unlike the mandated summer shutdowns, where teams must close their factories for a set period, the eleven entries have been free to keep working behind closed doors throughout April. The $215 million (£159 million) budget cap and the aerodynamic testing restrictions remain in force, as does the ban on full in‑season track testing (though limited running has taken place on permitted filming days and Pirelli test sessions). Development programmes for the early‑season cars had already been mapped out before the Middle Eastern rounds were cancelled, but the extra time in the workshops has undoubtedly allowed engineers across the grid to refine and improve their packages for Miami and the races that follow. McLaren, for example, has always viewed Miami as a showcase for a major early‑season upgrade – the Woking factory introduced a game‑changing aerodynamic package there in 2024.
Andrea Stella, the team principal, said the revised calendar actually helped the team focus on 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 explained. He added that the team expects to run an "entirely new MCL40" across Miami and the Canadian Grand Prix three weeks later, and that the performance gap will be judged on who can extract the most from the upgrades within the same timeframe. Consequently, Friday’s on‑track action will be heavily focused on the 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 on – such as Aston Martin and Williams – will be hoping the break has given them a chance to make bigger relative gains. The pause has also afforded every outfit the opportunity to digest the massive amount of data generated during the first three race weekends with the highly complex 2026 cars. That information feeds directly into decisions about which aerodynamic elements to prioritise for the rest of the year, as well as how to best manage power‑unit deployment and overall race‑weekend strategy.
Drivers, too, have used the downtime for fitness work, extra simulator sessions and detailed debriefs with their engineers to fine‑tune their driving styles for Miami’s unique layout. Meanwhile, technical chiefs have been in talks with the FIA on regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced from the Miami round onward. The most notable change concerns power‑unit rules, aimed at smoothing energy deployment so that qualifying laps can be run flat‑out more naturally and to reduce drastic speed differentials between cars in certain sections of a circuit during the race.
Because of those adjustments and the five‑week lull, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend has been extended from 60 to 90 minutes, giving drivers and engineers extra track time to adapt to the new parameters. Mercedes head into Miami leading both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, having secured three wins from the opening three weekends – a performance that cemented their status as early favourites. Their lead over second‑placed Ferrari stands at 45 points, while McLaren sit 89 points behind in third, buoyed by a strong second place at Suzuka. Red Bull trail further back, with Haas and Alpine occupying fifth and sixth places respectively.
On the drivers’ side, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli surprisingly tops the standings with 72 points, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell (63 points) after Antonelli’s back‑to‑back victories in Japan. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third, 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, who has slipped to ninth with just 12 points amid Red Bull’s early‑season struggles. The weekend schedule is packed: Thursday features a drivers’ press conference, Friday hosts the sole practice, F2 sessions and the Sprint qualifying, Saturday includes the Sprint race and qualifying for the Grand Prix, and Sunday culminates with the main race, post‑race analysis and a host of Sky Sports coverage. Fans can stream every session via Sky Sports F1 or NOW, with the option to cancel at any time. In summary, the Miami Grand Prix marks not just a return to racing after an unprecedented mid‑season break, but also a potential reset point for the 2026 championship.
With new upgrades, software tweaks, and regulatory changes all coming into play, the weekend promises to be a decisive moment for teams and drivers alike as they aim to shape the narrative of what many are already calling a "new championship".