Miami will be the start of a "new F1 championship", here's why

Ferrari F1 team boss Fred Vasseur believes May's Miami Grand Prix will be the start of a "new championship" as teams "push like crazy" for a first real opportunity to roll out major upgrades.

Some teams had already trickled out upgrades at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, but most frontrunners are keeping their powder dry for the Miami Autodrome race on the first weekend of May. In some cases, their hand was forced by the cancellation of the April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

Vasseur had long pointed out that the season opener in Australia would only be the starting point of a long slugfest, and that his team's passionate fans should neither get too over-excited nor downbeat over 2026's early form table.

Ferrari, which has already shown several glimpses of an innovative approach with its early aerodynamic devices - including a highly publicised rotating rear wing, is one of the teams expected to bring a significant package to the Florida race.

"Everyone will bring updates to Miami, they’ll have time to work on the software, and that’s why I said a new championship will begin," Vasseur told Sky Italy in Japan. "We won’t be the only ones working between Japan and Miami, so we need to pay attention to that. It’s true, however, that we have a month available, and that’s not usual in Formula 1. All the teams on the grid are pushing like crazy to improve, and there will be a step forward for everyone — we’ll see what the situation will be.

"We need to keep scoring plenty of points, getting on the podium, and staying close to Mercedes. We’ll need to remain close in the standings. The rate of development in the championship will be very high, so we’ll need to keep pushing hard over these months to accumulate points and results."

Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

When asked by Motorsport.com if he sees the Miami weekend the same way, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: "Yeah, it's exciting. I think we would have maybe wished that it continues over into the two Middle Eastern races and we can score a few more points, but I agree.

"The teams have learned, drivers are starting to learn how to optimise these systems to their benefit and we've seen that first indication today [during the Suzuka race]. What looked like a home run in the first two races for us isn't the case, and we've always warned [that would happen].

"For me, Miami is also going to be 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."

Reigning world champion McLaren is also readying its first batch of upgrades, which was always planned for Miami regardless of the events in the Middle East.

The team has a history of using the Miami weekend as a launchpad to success, with the race a major turning point in 2023 as McLaren gradually fought its way to the front of the grid.

But unlike 2023, all of its immediate rivals will now be doing the same thing, so McLaren team principal Andrea Stella isn't expecting the papaya squad to suddenly make a major leap relative to Mercedes and Ferrari.

The 2023 Miami Grand Prix was the starting point of McLaren's journey to the front of the field.

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

"There's good stuff happening in development, so I would expect that the car will be significantly improved in the coming races, especially starting from Miami," Stella said in China. "But obviously, we will have to see what the rate of development is of the other teams, because all cars will be improved. So hopefully, like we were able to do in 2023, we are going to have a faster development rate than our competitors."

The top team that needs upgrades the most is Red Bull Racing, which looked completely lost in Japan with an ill-handling RB22 that appears to harbour fundamental flaws that make it hard to set up and extract grip from.

How confident is the squad that it can use April to get on top of its woes? "Confident that we will use that break to make a very good step forward," team boss Laurent Mekies replied.

"We need the time to deep dive into our data. We need the time to simulate back what we see in the data into the tunnel, into our simulator. Try some sensitivities and all of that we can do without racing.

"Does it mean you come to Miami and you have solved everything as a miracle? No. But am I confident that the teams will get to the bottom of that understanding and start bringing improvements already in Miami? I think that's what you will see. But only the track and the lap time will give us an indication on whether we go into the right direction.

"I don't think we should expect a miracle, because the gap is substantial. But what we would like to see is to have a car where our drivers can push again, measure the gap to competition in these conditions when we are able to push and then the rest will be pure development until the end of the year."