– After a dominant start to the season, Mercedes had to concede defeat for the first time on Friday in the Miami sprint qualifying to a significantly upgraded McLaren. In the fourth round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Lando Norris secured pole for the 19-lap F1 sprint on Saturday, which turned into a shootout over a single lap.
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The 1:27.869 minutes of the reigning world champion were just over two tenths of a second ahead of the championship leader Antonelli in the Mercedes. Oscar Piastri was third, confirming McLaren’s significant progress, while the second Mercedes of George Russell only took 6th place in the results, six tenths behind Norris.
Out of rhythm
At first glance, Mercedes’ vulnerability in Miami was not entirely surprising for the team from Brackley, as they are following a different upgrade schedule compared to the competition. Both McLaren and Scuderia Ferrari had defined the race in Florida as the starting point of the intense development phase of 2026 and brought extensive aerodynamic updates.
McLaren already has experience making big development leaps in Florida. The track is now considered a kind of success ground for the team in papaya colors and for Norris, who celebrated his first Grand Prix win there in 2024 after a strong update package.
Mercedes, on the other hand, limited itself to minor adjustments to the front area and exhaust and saved the big update for the upcoming races in Montreal and beyond. “We are working as fast as possible, and our package will come in Canada and not here,” says Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord in an interview with Sky. “We do have some parts with us, so the expectation was that everything would be a bit closer – and that’s exactly how it looks.”
Even before the weekend, Russell had admitted that the field would “slowly close up.” Early signs of this were already seen in Japan when Oscar Piastri showed strong pace in the race. Nevertheless, Russell did not expect the balance of power to shift so quickly.
“Pretty surprising how big the step McLaren and Ferrari have made is – that’s really damn impressive. We knew they would get closer, but they were faster than us,” Russell said on Saturday evening.
A chaotic afternoon
While McLaren delivered a clean qualifying with both cars (even though Piastri felt he left time on the table in SQ3), the session was much more turbulent for Mercedes. Antonelli already had problems in the 90-minute practice, which ended prematurely due to a power unit defect. In addition, he only drove on medium tires, which were mandatory in the first two qualifying segments.
On his last lap in SQ3 on soft tires, the Italian then showed his potential and secured a front-row starting position. However, both he and George Russell struggled with tire overheating as they did not optimally hit the correct operating window.
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“It was a pretty chaotic session,” says Antonelli. “I had big problems with the car on the medium tires. I didn’t get a good lap, and then the car suddenly felt much livelier on the softs. I felt more comfortable. Of course, it’s a shame we didn’t try the softs already in practice. I think there was still a bit more in it.”
In addition, Mercedes believes it had a disadvantage in energy management compared to McLaren – precisely in an area where it was still superior at the start of the season. Especially at the beginning of the lap, GPS data showed an advantage for Norris, who already used more energy in turn 5 and immediately built a lead of four tenths that Mercedes could no longer catch. The speed curves show a slight top speed advantage for the Silver Arrows, but this was by far not enough to compensate for the time loss in the first sector.
Ferrari also apparently lost ground when switching from medium to soft tires in SQ3. Charles Leclerc was 0.370 seconds behind Norris in fourth place. And Max Verstappen was able to secure 5th place for Red Bull after problems with the balance of the RB22 thanks to an extensive aerodynamic update. Despite the gap to the top teams, the Dutchman speaks of progress: “It feels more coherent overall. Of course, there are still things we need to work on. But it was a really positive step for us.”
“In the last races, we were over a second behind. I would say we have now almost halved that gap. That’s positive. We are still very weak in the first sector, especially in fast corners. We know we need to work on that.”
McLaren is not done yet
With the lifting of parc fermé after the F1 sprint on Saturday, Mercedes could still get its problems under control before the Grand Prix qualifying. In addition, the overtaking opportunities due to the 2026 regulations – whether artificial or not – mean that starting positions are less decisive than before.
Regardless of how the Miami weekend progresses, the development race of 2026 has only just begun. Much attention will be on how Mercedes reacts in Canada. But as McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explains, the team from Woking also has further updates in reserve for Montreal. This second package is smaller than the Miami upgrade but still significant.
With the special case of the upcoming Monaco weekend before Formula 1 returns to Europe, it might only be the race in Barcelona at the end of June that provides a truly meaningful picture of the balance of power. (Formula 1 calendar 2026)
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To claim that Mercedes’ lead is definitively gone after just one difficult qualifying would therefore be premature. But the signs are increasing that the team will no longer be unchallenged at the top in 2026.
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