The Miami Grand Prix had a little bit of everything: multiple incidents, two of Formula 1's best drivers winning, a three-car scrap at the final corner on the final lap (that resulted in contact) and more.

And though there was a familiar end result, this was Mercedes' least convincing win of 2026 thanks to McLaren's challenge - and it our first chance to see what the raft of in-season rules changes had done to reshape what an F1 race looks like this year.

So we basically said to our contributors: discuss!

Two big reasons to be encouraged

Scott Mitchell-Malm

I really like that we have some old-fashioned stuff to care about after that race! It's just a shame, purely for the sake of variety, it didn't result in a different winner.

Errors from Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc - assuming no technical foul play in terms of erroneous power deployment catching them out - were extremely out of character and had big impacts on their races.

Plus, McLaren was left to rue simply not doing a tidy enough job as a win was on the cards.

Well done to Kimi Antonelli, who was a clear best Mercedes driver and deserved his victory. He's beaten multiple drivers from multiple teams on the day, and is settling into this early-season rhythm beautifully.

F1 2026 is by no means perfect and I'm reserving judgement on the rules tweaks - which did help - until we see them on a more awkward circuit in terms of energy management. But I liked the Miami race much like I enjoyed China and parts of Japan. So I'm encouraged about the racing and more importantly the increased competition. 

Be careful writing off Russell

Jack Benyon

I'd be really cautious to write off George Russell.

You can't take away from what Antonelli has done: no one has converted their first three poles in a row before in F1!

But Russell had an electrical issue in China, the safety car gave Antonelli a big hand in Japan and here, this is probably the biggest disparity between two drivers; that's to say this is likely Russell's worst track and one of Antonelli's best.

I love what we've seen from Antonelli but the mistake-ridden Miami sprint and exasperated messages and more track limits in the grand prix proper show he's got work to do on his composure still.

Russell's had so many issues affecting his results, I still think he will take a lot of beating in this team-mate fight. Canada will be a big marker for judging things properly.

Antonelli appears to have the upper hand

Eden Hanigan

Miami promised us so much in the opening laps, and even at the end with Leclerc almost binning it. But scattered incidents couldn't save this race from its fate of becoming another happy hunting ground for Mercedes in 2026. 

If anything, this race has taught us that we are fortunate that Mercedes struggles so much at race starts because it actually allows us to get some racing for the big positions early on.

Even if it the eventual outcome is predictable, it's still down to the driver to exploit the best package, and Antonelli's confidence and consistency have played a big part in him being ahead of the rest at the chequered flag for three weekends on the trot.

Mercedes won't be resting on its laurels though, with McLaren providing a strong challenge throughout. For the first time, Mercedes looked beatable - it was in the case of Russell, who was behind both McLarens and was extremely lucky not to end up behind both spinners too. 

Still, with upgrades set to come in Montreal, I think we might be in it for the long haul with regards to Mercedes' dominance. The question I have though is can Russell make it less one-sided than it was here, or is this weekend evidence of Antonelli gaining the upper hand?

How much has the formula actually changed?

Gary Anderson

I enjoyed the race. There's still a bit too much of that yo-yo effect that actually in my book doesn't constitute real overtaking, but the changes made to the deployment and harvesting have levelled things out just that little bit.

I will add the proviso here that compared to Suzuka, the Miami circuit is energy-rich because of the increased braking time, so for other circuits there will still be some fiddling to do.

It looks like we now have four teams in the battle at the front. Mercedes has been caught by Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, but still Antonelli, in achieving three poles and three wins in succession, stands out as one of the best. He's still young and has lots to learn, but he really has taken up the challenge and is showing that this season he is not going to make Russell's life easy.

Ferrari's developments have brought it closer to Mercedes and Leclerc looks like he has the upper hand over Hamilton.

The same goes for McLaren: it has closed the gap, with Norris leading that battle against Piastri.

As for Red Bull, Verstappen says he is now enjoying the car and has trust in it. He doesn't have the same problem against his team-mate as the other three teams but Isack Hadjar is no slouch, he just needs to settle down and focus on getting a clean weekend to build his confidence.

It's still all about electrical deployment and harvesting strategy, which is fine if the entertainment is more important than the racing but we often ask the question: is it the driver or the car?

With these regulations the bias has moved too far towards the team; there is one driver in the car, who many people want to support as their hero, but each team will have multiple groups of engineers working on deployment and harvesting strategy both prior to the event and live during the event.

Gone are the days of drivers like Ayrton Senna just having the car dancing on the edge for every lap in qualifying and the race.