The 2026 season comes to Miami on Sunday May 3 after a five-week gap - the longest mid-season break in the calendar. Sprint weekend format, Florida heat, and a Mercedes team that has won two on the bounce with race-pace numbers nobody in the paddock can explain.
The state of play
Mercedes lead Ferrari 123-77 in the constructors’. Oscar Piastri ’s Suzuka P2 moved McLaren ahead of Red Bull and within striking range of Haas. Five-week break means upgrades. Every team in the points-paying half of the grid is expected to bring a meaningful package.
What Miami asks of the cars
Long straights, tight chicane-style stadium section, low-grip surface that takes the whole weekend to rubber in. The new active-aero rear wing should matter more here than at any track so far - two DRS-equivalent straights plus a third near-straight. Teams that have got the wing transitions clean will find easy laptime. Teams that haven’t will have a messy weekend.
What to watch
Red Bull have been trailing a major package for Miami all month. If it doesn’t work, the season story stops being Mercedes are dominant and starts being Red Bull are broken. P8 in Suzuka was the floor; Marko’s quotes suggest it can go lower.
Oscar Piastri ’s Suzuka P2 was the Australian’s first sign that the car the team have been telling us about in private actually exists. A second strong weekend would make it a trend.
With Mercedes’ race pace looking unassailable, the smaller teams that pick up sprint points - one-stop strategy, cooler tyre temps, less rubber on the surface - have an outsized opportunity. Haas showed in Shanghai how to convert this.
He’s never won in Miami. The tifosi turn up for this one in numbers and his result tends to set the tone for the European leg of the season.
Sprint Saturday at 12:00 local, race Sunday at 16:00 local (20:00 UTC).