The 2026 Formula 1 campaign picks up again this week after an enforced hiatus, kicking off with the Miami Grand Prix – an event many are calling the effective launch of a "new championship." After the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29, this marks the first time the teams will share the track on a Friday since that race, as the calendar has been forced to accommodate a five‑week lull caused by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds that were originally slated in the 24‑race schedule. Miami now serves as the fourth race weekend of the year and the second Sprint weekend, but the month‑long interval that teams have enjoyed in their factories since Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli seized the championship lead with his win at Suzuka means the return to competition is expected to feel somewhat different from the opening three meetings. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur, whose outfit has been Mercedes’ nearest rival before the break, suggested the weekend will feel like another fresh start to the season. "Everyone will bring new upgrades to Miami," Vasseur told Sky Sports Italy, adding that the extra time will allow teams to fine‑tune software and that, in his view, a "new championship" is about to begin.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, whose squad has claimed victory in all three races and one Sprint so far, echoed the sentiment, noting that the Silver Arrows are the benchmark that every other team is trying to catch in this new‑regulation era. "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 season move straight from Suzuka to Bahrain on April 12 and then to Saudi Arabia on April 19.
Both Middle‑Eastern events were called off for safety reasons linked to the regional conflict, and with no feasible alternatives or other April dates on the calendar, the cancellations produced an unscheduled five‑week gap – the longest in‑season break since the opening two rounds of the 1999 season, if summer and winter shutdowns are excluded. Unlike the mandatory factory closures that occur during the August summer pause and the off‑season winter break, 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 running was permitted during filming sessions and Pirelli test days. Development schedules for the 2026 cars had already been set before the Middle‑East races were scrapped, but the extra factory time undoubtedly gave designers and engineers across the grid an opportunity to refine and enhance their packages ahead of Miami and the races that follow.
McLaren, for example, has long viewed Miami as a showcase for a major early‑season upgrade – a strategy that paid off when the Woking factory introduced a game‑changing aero package in 2024. Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, explained that the team always intended to deliver a "completely new car" for the North American events, and the calendar reshuffle has actually helped them and other teams focus on development rather than race logistics.
"Across Miami and Canada we will see an entirely new MCL40," Stella said, adding that the real test will be which teams can extract the most performance from their upgrades within the same time frame, and that McLaren also hopes to recover some ground on Mercedes and Ferrari. Consequently, much of the attention on Friday will centre 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, such as Aston Martin and Williams, view the break as a chance to make substantial gains relative to the front‑runners.
Beyond hardware, the extended pause gave every outfit a chance to digest the massive amount of data generated during the first three race weekends with the brand‑new 2026 machinery. This information has informed not only aerodynamic development priorities but also strategies for operating the complex power‑unit and hybrid systems over a race weekend to maximise performance.
Drivers, too, have used the downtime productively. In addition to maintaining their physical fitness, many have spent extra hours in simulators, working closely with engineers to fine‑tune their driving styles to the nuances of the new cars. Technical directors have also been in discussions with the FIA and Formula One management about regulatory tweaks that are set to be introduced from Miami onward.
The most notable changes affect energy deployment, aiming to make qualifying laps more naturally flat‑out and to reduce extreme closing speeds during races. Because of these adjustments and the five‑week lull, the sole practice session on the Sprint weekend in Miami will be extended from the usual 60 minutes to 90 minutes, giving drivers and engineers additional track time to adapt to the revised parameters. Mercedes currently leads both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, having secured three wins in the opening three race weekends – a performance that cemented their status as the early favourites. Their lead over second‑placed Ferrari stands at 45 points, while McLaren, the reigning champions, sit 89 points behind in third, buoyed by a strong second‑place finish at Suzuka.
Red Bull trails further back, occupying sixth place with just 16 points. On the drivers' side, 19‑year‑old Kimi Antonelli unexpectedly tops the standings with 72 points, followed by George Russell on 63 points after Russell’s back‑to‑back victories early in the season.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third, 23 points adrift of Antonelli, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton (now with Mercedes) four points behind in fourth. Lando Norris sits fifth with 25 points, Oscar Piastri sixth with 21, and Max Verstappen, struggling with pace, is ninth with 12 points. The weekend schedule is packed: Thursday features a drivers' press conference, Friday includes F2 practice, the Miami GP practice session, F2 qualifying, a team bosses' press conference, and the Sprint qualifying. Saturday hosts the F2 sprint, the Sprint build‑up, the Sprint race itself, and qualifying build‑up, followed by the Sprint qualifying.
Sunday rounds out the program with the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix build‑up, the main race, post‑race reaction, and a final recap notebook. Fans can watch the action live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available via NOW – a contract‑free service that can be cancelled at any time. The Miami Grand Prix therefore represents not just the resumption of racing after an unprecedented mid‑season pause, but also a pivotal moment where teams will showcase the fruits of a month’s worth of development, and where the narrative of the 2026 championship may well be rewritten.