The 2026 Formula 1 calendar gets back on track this week after an enforced hiatus, with the Miami Grand Prix being billed as the effective launch of a "new championship". For the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix on 29 March, all teams will once again share the circuit on Friday at the Miami International Autodrome, ending a five‑week lull that was forced by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds originally slated in the 24‑race programme. 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 valuable window to develop their brand‑new 2026 cars.
Since Mercedes’ rookie Kimi Antonelli seized the championship lead with a win at Suzuka, 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 pause, described the upcoming weekend as another fresh start to the season.
"Everyone will bring new upgrades to Miami," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy after 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 the sentiment, noting that the Silver Arrows have dominated the first three races and a Sprint, but that the break offers a chance to see how rivals have refined their packages. "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 events were cancelled on safety grounds because of the Middle‑East conflict. With no feasible alternatives and no other races pencilled in for April, the season suffered an unscheduled five‑week gap – the longest in‑season pause since the opening two rounds of 1999, if summer and winter shutdowns are excluded. Unlike those mandated factory closures, the eleven teams were free to continue development behind closed doors throughout April.
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 allowed on filming days and Pirelli test sessions). Development plans for the early‑season cars had already been set before the Middle‑East races were called off, but the extra factory time inevitably allowed engineers across the grid to fine‑tune their concepts for Miami and the races that follow. McLaren, for example, has long viewed Miami as a showcase for 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 team intended to debut a "completely new car" for the North American races. He added that the calendar reshuffle actually helped everyone: "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.
Across Miami and Canada we will see an entirely new MCL40." Given the extended break, the focus on Friday’s Friday‑night session will be on the upgrade packages each team brings, how those translate into lap times, and whether the hierarchy of the grid will shift. Teams that struggled early – Aston Martin and Williams, for instance – will be hoping the downtime translates into a noticeable performance jump. Beyond hardware, the pause gave engineers ample opportunity to digest the massive data set generated by the three opening rounds of the highly complex 2026 spec cars.
That information will shape not only aerodynamic development but also strategies for power‑unit management, tyre usage and overall race‑weekend workflow. Drivers, too, have used the time productively.
In addition to maintaining fitness, they have logged countless hours in simulators, working with engineers to refine driving styles and extract maximum performance from the new machinery. Some have also enjoyed unexpected free time, which can be crucial for mental reset after a grueling start to the year. Technical directors have been busy behind the scenes, negotiating with the FIA on a set of regulation tweaks that are slated to take effect from Miami onward.
The changes target power‑unit energy deployment, aiming to make qualifying laps more naturally flat‑out and to reduce dramatic speed differentials during races, especially in sections of the circuit where large gaps are undesirable. To accommodate the new parameters, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend has been lengthened from 60 to 90 minutes, giving teams a broader window to adapt to the revised rules and to test the latest upgrades.
Mercedes currently sit atop both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, having secured three victories in the opening 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’ side, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli surprisingly leads the standings with 72 points, followed by Mercedes’ George Russell on 63 points. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third, 23 points adrift of Antonelli, while Lewis Hamilton sits fourth, eight points behind Leclerc. Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen round out the top six, with Verstappen currently ninth as Red Bull struggles to find pace under the new regulations. The weekend schedule is packed: Thursday’s drivers’ press conference at 7 pm, Friday’s F2 practice and Miami GP practice, Sprint qualifying and team‑boss press conference, followed by Saturday’s F2 sprint, the Miami Sprint race, and qualifying sessions.
Sunday concludes with the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix itself, and post‑race analysis. Fans can watch the action live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available via NOW – no contract required, cancel anytime. The Miami Grand Prix thus marks not only the resumption of racing after an unprecedented pause but also the first real test of how teams have leveraged that downtime to reshape the competitive landscape of the 2026 Formula One season.