After an unexpected five-week gap to tinker with their 2026 Formula 1 cars, the sport’s 11 teams will kick back into the racing rhythm next week when they head Stateside for the Miami Grand Prix. F1 Correspondent Lawrence Barretto takes a look at the key questions ahead of the season resumption.
Will Mercedes still lead and can Russell respond to Antonelli?
Mercedes delivered on their pre-season promise by winning all three races so far this season to take control of both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships, and therefore entered the break brimming with confidence.
That didn’t mean they would take their foot of the gas, though, and like all their rivals, they will have used the extra weeks back at their UK base in Brackley to refine their already impressive chassis and hone a development package that would have long been in the works.
They were commanding in every single Qualifying session so far in 2026 – but there were signs in Japan that their rivals had slashed the gap in race trim, with Oscar Piastri (whose McLaren runs their power unit) genuinely threatening their 100% win record, and they know they need to sharpen up their reliability.
It’s likely they will still be the class-leader in Miami given the quality of their overall package, but they will expect McLaren, Ferrari – and the rest – to have shut the gap.
On the driver front, they have a lovely battle developing between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
Six-time racer winner Russell, now in his fifth season with the team, looked super comfortable through pre-season testing and utterly dominated the Australian Grand Prix weekend – but he suffered niggles in the next two rounds to blunt his charge.
His team mate Antonelli, in his sophomore season, took full advantage. First, he secured his first Grand Prix win in China (becoming the second youngest Grand Prix winner), and then followed that up with a win in Japan to become F1’s youngest-ever championship leader.
Russell seems unperturbed and will internally still back himself to deliver on his pre-season favourite tag, given his experience – and the upward curve he’s shown since joining Mercedes. But he has seen up close just how good Antonelli is and will be aware he’s growing in confidence. Watching their battle intensify will be fascinating.
How good is McLaren’s completely new car?
Defending champions McLaren were slow out of the blocks in 2026, though that’s not so surprising given their huge push to the final race of last season that ultimately yielded a double world title.
They were off the pace in Australia and failed to start the Grand Prix with either car in China – but so well oiled is that machine these days that they rebounded with aplomb in Japan, with Piastri fighting for the win before settling for second place, marking their first podium of the season.
Boss Andrea Stella reckons they are now on top of their understanding of the Mercedes power unit and have “all the tools that are required to extract the most out” of it. But what about the chassis?
Well, they are set to bring a “completely new car” across Miami and the following race in Canada – which was part of their plan, even before the unexpected five-week gap appeared – and if their development rate since the start of 2023 is anything to go by (every update they have brought in that time has given them a huge chunk of lap time), their rivals should be worried.
It’s why Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are not only hopeful they will be in a position to fight for wins on pure performance at some stage this season but they are also not giving up on either championship, even if they concede that Mercedes will be very tough to beat.
Can Ferrari give Hamilton and Leclerc a car to win?
There is no doubt the atmosphere within the halls of Ferrari’s Maranello base has been lifted this year after F1’s most famous team enjoyed an encouraging start to the 2026 campaign.
Boss Fred Vasseur took a risk by switching off development on the 2025 car last April to focus on this year’s machine, built to sweeping new rules – and the early signs are that it paid off, with the Italian team inside the top three.
Charles Leclerc has taken two podiums in three races, while seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has got his mojo back and is loving driving again for the first time since 2021.
However, while they’ve brought nifty innovations to track this year – including the flippy rear wing – they’ve yet to conjure up enough speed to fight for a win, and thus a lot of attention will be on their Miami upgrade package and whether or not that can inch them close enough to Mercedes to get in the mix and hold off what is sure to be a charging McLaren.
Can Red Bull haul themselves out of the midfield?
A decision to develop their car deep into 2025, as Max Verstappen launched a remarkable comeback in the Drivers’ Championship fight only to lose out on the final race, has put Red Bull on the back foot in 2026.
While their debut F1 power unit, created in conjunction with Ford, has been a revelation both in terms of reliability and performance, their chassis is underdeveloped and difficult to drive, leaving both Verstappen and Isack Hadjar with a challenge to find a good balance.
As a result, they’ve been fighting in unfamiliar territory in the midfield so far this year and currently sit sixth in the Teams’ Championship on 16 points, 119 off championship leaders Mercedes after just three rounds and only two ahead of sister team Racing Bulls.
There’s a long way to go, of course, with 19 Grands Prix to play with – and Red Bull have shown in recent history they can fight back after a poor start (most notably in 2022 – when the last rule change was introduced – as they recovered from a slow start to overhaul Ferrari and win both titles), but it’s certainly a big ask.
Can Aston Martin and Williams bounce back?
While Red Bull have suffered a difficult start, it’s nothing compared to the plights of Williams and Aston Martin. Williams missed the Barcelona Shakedown after delays in production and have been chasing their tail ever since, while Aston Martin’s new partnership with Honda has had a bumpy opening chapter.
Williams have done their best to play catch up and will have used this gap to find ways to shave off kilograms in their overweight car, while also working on their first proper in-season upgrade package – so there is hope internally that they can make some gains and haul themselves into the midfield fight.
Aston Martin and Honda, meanwhile, will also have been grateful for the gap, as it offered some respite from a slew of reliability issues. Encouragingly, Honda seemed to be making progress with countermeasures introduced to improve reliability – while technical lead Adrian Newey accepted there’s plenty more scope to improve the chassis, too.
Both squads will be pinning a lot on their revised packages for Miami – though they do concede that everyone else will likely make steps, too. They can only hope their respective steps are bigger if they are to make a dent on the gap between them and the midfield pack for the next round of races.
