Four reasons the real 2026 Formula 1 season starts in Miami

Stefano Domenicali may be in denial about the level of support for this year’s regulations, but we aren’t. Fake Mario Kart-style overtaking, cars unable to hold enough charge for high-speed corners, and unsafe closing speeds. It’s been an absolutely shambolic season so far. 

The good news is that F1’s best have had time to lick their wounds. Those who started off on the wrong foot have spent the last month finding fixes. In Miami, we should see updates up and down the pitlane that bring the pack together, hopefully improving the show for fans at home. 

There are also signs that the FIA has caved in to calls for change. Ollie Bearman’s horror crash in Japan has proven to be a wake-up call. It’s now accepted that something needs to be done about erratic battery charging—and reforms have been made to improve safety and bring back competitive qualifying. 

If we’re trying to put a positive spin on F1 2026, it’s that things will change (marginally) this weekend for the better. Here are four reasons that Miami might represent a fresh start to this year's Formula 1 world championship. 

It has been over a month since the last race. You can bet anything you like that teams haven’t been sitting idle. Upgrades are coming—and team principals have already been blabbing about their anticipated performance gains. 

Before teams even left Japanese soil, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was talking about “another championship” starting in Miami. Many would agree that Ferrari have had the best car through the corners, but they’ve lacked pace on the straights. Could a big upgrade bring them alongside Mercedes at the front? 

Even if not, the Scuderia are saying they’ll be given extra R&D time as part of the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) program from Miami onwards. So, they’ll have ample opportunity to catch up. 

Andrea Stella has also earmarked aero upgrades for McLaren, while Racing Bulls have taken advantage of the break to work on their chassis. Long story short, all F1’s teams have been granted a reprieve from this year’s Scalextric racing. Big upgrades could shake up the order; it’ll be interesting to see what rolls out of the garage in Miami.

Discussions between teams and the FIA ahead of Miami were wide-ranging, but fixing qualifying was understood to be the top priority. That said, bringing back white-knuckle laps, where drivers push to the absolute limit, will be easier said than done.

In the opening races, drivers not only suffered from super-clipping at high speed, but they also had to deal with unpredictable power surges. For example, Charles Leclerc made a mistake in Chinese Grand Prix qualifying that caused his car to automatically deploy battery in response, leaving him well short of power later in the lap. 

Cars will remain sensitive to throttle input for the time being, but the FIA is at least trying to improve the spectacle. They experimented with reducing power limits in Japan in a way that attempted to stop drivers from running out of energy mid-lap.

Now, energy harvesting has been limited to 7 MJ per lap, with the amount of energy recovered via super-clipping going up. Max boost has also been limited to 150 MJ, and new grid safety systems have been introduced to avoid high closing speeds. Hopefully this makes racing safer and improves the show. Although E-Formula 1 is here to stay. 

Early frontrunners Mercedes have had another engine loophole closed. Alongside Red Bull, the team is said to have found a way of running at full speed in the final sectors of the opening races, at the same time others suffered from a battery power “ramp down.” 

Apparently, Mercedes and Red Bull were taking advantage of a rule that allowed the MGU-K to shut down when they encountered problems. Rivals first noticed they were doing so to avoid the battery rampdown effect in Australia and complained to the FIA. 

Now this trick has been outlawed by a technical directive, it’s expected the rest of the field will catch up. Not by a lot—it’s only reported to be worth 50kW-100kW at the end of each lap. But F1’s all about making minor gains where you can. It’ll put some additional wind into the sails of competitors, especially customer team McLaren. 

F1 fans have become used to bulletproof reliability in recent years. However, it’s no longer a given that driver performance will decide finishing positions. Getting to grips with the new rules has proven a real challenge, particularly for the likes of Aston Martin. 

In 2025, there were 5 DNFs and 2 DNS' in the opening three races. This figure has gone up to 7 DNFs and 9 DNS' for 2026. With another month’s development under their belts, you’d expect the world’s best engineers to have resolved many of these problems by the time they reach Miami. The order could change dramatically as a result.

Things might get rosier for Red Bull, for example, who suffered reliability issues in both the opening two races. McLaren didn’t start the Chinese Grand Prix at all. Given their performance in Japan, where might they have finished had they set off? There will be no hiding in Miami. These “what ifs” will need answering sooner or later. 

One of the biggest beneficiaries of 2026’s chaotic start has been Kimi Antonelli. The young Italian finds himself top of the championship after teammate George Russell suffered issues in China and got very unlucky in Japan. From Miami onwards, he faces a new challenge: proving that he can win against Russell on merit. 

In the run up to this weekend’s race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has stressed how his drivers must work together. After all, they’ve only been running out front for a few races. But if things stay as they are, it’s only a matter of time before they fight each other for victory. 

These rivalries don’t always boil over, as we saw last season with Lando Norris’ lukewarm title battle against Oscar Piastri. Mercedes do have a history though (Lewis Hamilton vs. Nico Rosberg comes to mind).

Wolff will be keen to keep things clean, but it’s hard to ignore the feeling that Antonelli still needs a statement victory over Russell. He’ll get another shot in Miami.