Racing
© Jonathan Borba
With thunderstorms forecast for Sunday but the FIA preparing for delays or red flags rather than expecting a cancellation, the bigger Miami Grand Prix unknown is how Formula 1’s 2026 cars will cope with their first real collective wet running.
The governing body said it is “closely monitoring the weather forecast for this weekend” and has “a contingency plan in place” after dealing with a similar threat in Miami last year. Shelter is available inside Hard Rock Stadium and the garages, so a suspension is more likely than an outright cancellation if lightning arrives. Local safety rules still matter, though. If the lightning risk becomes immediate, operations must stop, and without authorization for the medical helicopter to fly, there can be no race operation.
That leaves the main sporting concern on the cars themselves. Ahead of Miami, the FIA approved a package of wet-running changes that cuts power deployment to 250kW in low-grip conditions, bans boost mode, revises Straightline Mode and raises intermediate tyre blanket temperatures. Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, speaking after a wet shakedown at Silverstone, said “it was very tricky,” even if the 250kW cap and no-boost rule are “already a step forward in that regard.” His bigger concern was that “no one really used the inter tyres,” while these cars are also “a bit harder to build temperature with the tyres.”
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc raised the sharpest warning. He said the strange effect of these cars in the wet is that they may be faster at the end of the straight than in the dry because they use less energy and suffer less engine cut. “You can find yourself in tricky situations, especially if drivers are driving with different power unit strategies,” he said. With little visibility, that becomes more than a handling issue. “Because in the wet, we are really passengers.”
Leclerc said the old assumption that everyone ahead would arrive at roughly the same speed no longer holds. “In the rain, it is not about being brave or not; it is just you stay flat out and you hope that no cars in front of you are slower than you,” he said. That is the central fear going into Sunday: not just low grip, but major closing-speed differences in conditions where drivers can barely see.
Miami’s track only adds to that risk. The circuit’s flat surface has a reputation for leaving standing water on the racing line, especially on the straights. Max Verstappen said “the drainage around here on the parking lot is probably a bit more tricky as well” and recalled “a lot of standing water” on the laps to the grid last year. Carlos Sainz called it “certainly going to be a concern” because “the water stays on the surface” with walls close by and visibility already poor.
Sainz also questioned one of the wet-weather technical measures. He said he did not understand why Straightline Mode would be allowed only at the front in the wet “if it doesn’t reduce the drag much,” and suggested the remaining uncertainties need to be addressed in the drivers’ briefing so everyone is clear on what they should expect.
The caution is not theoretical. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly described a January wet run at Silverstone as the most extreme experience of his career. “It was 30 degrees tyre temperature, wheelspinning even in 6th gear,” he said, before adding that after Maggots and Becketts he had to “change underwear every lap.” If Miami does get the heavy rain now in the forecast, Formula 1 will find out very quickly whether its latest wet-weather fixes are enough to stop those testing alarms becoming a race-day problem.