2026 Miami Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
Apr 30
4 min read

F1 is Finally Back!

After an enforced “Spring Break” due to the cancellation of both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix’s, Formula 1 is finally back for the first time since the end of March! For those who may have forgotten what’s happened so far this season, allow me to catch you up! Brand-new cars have resulted in some very different racing action than what we’re used to, whilst Qualifying has been a massive topic of debate! Mercedes are by far and away the best team, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli currently leading his much more experienced teammate George Russell at the top of the Drivers’ Standings! Ferrari are quick at starts, McLaren have had reliability struggles, whilst Red Bull are really on the back foot! And let’s not even talk about Aston Martin; they’re even worse than Cadillac! It’s also worth remembering that Miami plays host to a Sprint Weekend, meaning even more competitive action following an extended FP1 session! Stay tuned!

George Russell’s “Difficult” Start

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that George Russell hasn’t delivered so far in 2026, so I thought we should delve into it! In Australia, George was almost faultless, taking both Pole Position and the Race Win following a strong early tussle with the two Ferraris! In the China Sprint, Russell again looked faultless, taking victory whilst his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli could only manage 5th! However, that cloak of invisibility slightly wore off in Qualifying later that day, with a fault meaning the Brit could only do one flying lap in Q3 (with a car that was clearly compromised)! So, taking all of that into account, qualifying P2 was quite a good effort! In the Race, George Russell got bogged down fighting the two Ferraris again, meaning he could only end up finishing where he started, whilst a bad setup left George off the pace in comparison to his teammate in Japan! However, despite all of that, a little bit of luck would’ve seen Russell win that Race, with a badly-timed Safety Car plus another car fault meaning he ended up off the Podium in Suzuka completely! Right now, George Russell is 9 points off his Mercedes teammate in the World Drivers’ Championship, a gap that has a lot of factors to it! I think, firstly, you have to praise Kimi Antonelli for doing a pretty stellar job; no one can deny that! However, I also think people have to realise that a lot of things haven’t gone right for George Russell so far in 2026, so to say that he’s not ready to fight for a World Championship is quite frankly ridiculous!

The Miami Special Liveries

I will caveat this part of the article by saying that these are the liveries announced so far, as I’m pretty confident that there’ll be at least one other special livery announced between the release of this article and FP1 tomorrow! So, let’s start with Cadillac, who’ve gone very stars and stripes for their very first Home Race! I honestly prefer this a lot more than their standard livery, and I feel like having the word “USA” on the rear wing is actually quite unique! Also, it’s interesting that Cadillac are running a special home livery, but Haas aren’t! Anyway, Alpine have brought back the yellow that they ran in Brazil (and other events) last year, whilst Racing Bulls have really gone in with the yellow on their livery! It honestly looks like a highlighters been used, and I don’t know how I feel about it! Like, I love the colour yellow, but I wouldn’t say this is anywhere near as good as their rainbow and pink Miami liveries from previous seasons! Still, at least it’s vibrant! Also, Max Verstappen’s Miami helmet is a 10/10; no notes!

Will Lando Norris Return to the Podium?

It’s sort of crazy to think that the last time Lando Norris stepped onto a Formula 1 Podium, he’d just become World Champion! That was back in December, and now we’re about to enter May! McLaren’s pace hasn’t helped, starting the season as the third-fastest car, whilst a double DNS in China stopped either driver from having any chance of scoring a point, let alone making the Podium! Then there’s Japan, where Lando had a ridiculous amount of mechanical issues through Practice, putting him on the back foot! Whilst Norris was able to recover to another P5 finish, his teammate Oscar Piastri was the star of the weekend, with a badly-timed Safety Car being the only reason he didn’t win! After 3 rounds, Lando Norris sits 5th in the Drivers’ Championship with 25 points, already 47 points off Kimi Antonelli out front! It’s safe to say that Lando needs a big weekend at a track that he knows very well!

Refinements from Round 4 Onwards

With a month off, Formula 1 and the FIA had plenty of time to go over their current regulations to try and find some much-needed tweaks to try and improve the sport as a whole! Firstly, the maximum permitted recharge has been reduced from 8MJ to 7MJ, in an attempt to increase flat-out racing, whilst the peak superclip power has been increased from 250 kW to 350 kW, in an attempt to “reduce driver workload on energy management”! This will also be applied during the Grand Prix, too! There have also been changes to how powerful Boost Mode is, in an attempt to reduce excessive closing speeds (like we saw in the incident between Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto in Suzuka), whilst there’s also been added safety towards Race starts! Did you keep up? Honestly, reading that article felt like I was reading patch notes for the Formula 1 Game, but that’s fine as long as it actually improves the racing spectacle!