After an enforced month-long pause in the race calendar following the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, Formula One reconvened in Miami for round four of the season, the second Sprint weekend of the year and the first race in the Americas in 2026. Sweeping around the imposing Hard Rock Stadium, in normal times the home of the Miami Dolphins American football team, the Miami Grand Prix has become a modern showpiece event on the F1 calendar. After the hugely disappointing races in Australia and China, the AMR26 showed just a gradual gain in reliability in Japan, where Alonso nursed the car to the chequered flag. But during the April break, the team was firmly focused on solving the deeper issues within the new Honda power unit package. Prior to the race, the team were setting expectations that their main priorities were to resolve the engine vibration issues within the AMR26 chassis and on reliability, rather than any incremental speed upgrades. The team’s view, led by Adrian Newey, was that there’s no point on developing and fitting enhancements to the car that will make it go a tenth of a second or so faster round a lap, when they are 3+ seconds adrift of the leading cars. A monumental leap is needed rather than a minor improvement – therefore, no upgrades were brought for this race.
Free Practice
The only practice session of the weekend was extended to 90 minutes to compensate for the lack of running and for the teams to test the implementations of the regulation changes made during April. Yet Aston Martin were unable to take advantage of that extra time as a loss of power in their garage to the systems, computers & laptops required to operate the cars prevented any running while the issue was investigated. Alonso and Stroll had to remain in the garage for over 20 minutes and even once the issue appeared to be resolved and both cars ventured out, they were more than 4 seconds off the pace and the problem persisted in a different form, with intermittent interaction/data collection between the cars, computers and the pit crew, forcing the drivers to return to the garage. The pair went out again on soft tyres, with just over 40 minutes remaining but by the time consistent running was possible, their session was already compromised. Stroll initially placed his AMR26 in P18, 3.5 seconds off the pace of the fastest car, Leclerc’s Ferrari. Then Alonso slipped into that spot, pushing Stroll down a place to P19, before they both came in with just over 20 minutes remaining. They went out with less than 10 minutes left on the clock for their final runs on medium tyres and circulated well off the pace, firmly towards the bottom of the timing sheets - Alonso in P20, Stroll P21. Alonso managed to haul himself up to P19, which is where he finished the session, whereas Stroll was outpaced by Bottas and he finished in P22. Charles Leclerc finished in P1.
Sprint Qualifying
That lack of practice probably hindered the Aston Martin pair as they headed out on medium tyres for the first 12 minute Sprint Qualifying round. It unravelled almost immediately for Stroll as his fast lap attempt was effectively ended by a heavy lock-up at the end of the long back straight that left him stranded off track and which brought out yellow flags. Fortunately he was able to get his AMR26 going again and the session continued, but the Canadian returned to the garage and took no further part. Alonso stayed out of trouble but his session also proved unproductive - his only representative lap getting deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him eliminated alongside his teammate. The result of the round; Alonso P21, Stroll P22 with Norris in P1 for McLaren, who went on to secure Sprint pole ahead of Antonelli in a Mercedes and Piastri, also in a McLaren.
Sprint Race
Before the start of the 19-lap race Aston Martin were saved the ignominy of starting last when Racing Bull’s Lindblad was handed a penalty, due to his mechanics breaching the regulations by working on his car beyond the ‘allocated’ time, meaning he would start from the pitlane and allow Stroll to start 21st & Alonso 20th. Fortune would smile on them further, when Hulkenberg’s Audi caught fire on the formation lap for the race and he had to abandon it. Off the start they all charged for a short sprint to turn 1 and Stroll put his new soft tyres to immediate effect and passed Alonso, also on soft tyres. At the front, Norris got a good start but pole-sitter Antonelli didn't and by the end of lap 1 it was Norris, Piastri & Leclerc in the top 3 positions. After 3 laps Alonso’s tyres came to life and he got 20th place back from Stroll and got up to within half a second of Bottas. Two laps later, using his energy management to full effect, Stroll repassed Alonso and on lap 8 both of them passed Bottas and pulled out to over a second ahead of him. At the halfway distance point of the race Stroll was P18, Alonso P19 – at the front it was still Norris, Piastri & Leclerc in that order. On lap 14 Albon had to come in for a new nose cone and he dropped to last place, which moved Stroll up to P17 & Alonso to P18. For the next few laps the Aston Martin pair battled each other and on lap 17 Alonso gained the better of Stroll and repassed him and then closed in on Perez, who was just 0.4 of a second ahead. They were neck and neck with each other for the next lap and it was only with 3 corners to go on the final lap that Alonso managed to sneak past Perez and finished the Sprint race in P16, with Stroll in P18. Norris comfortably took the chequered flag first, followed by Piastri and Leclerc. After the race, the Stewards disqualified Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto due to a technical engine intake air pressure violation that was picked up on his car post-race and he was excluded from the results. This meant that the official final result was that Alonso finished 15th and Stroll was 17th. It was a modest result, but it was notable to record that the two Aston Martins gained more positions than any other drivers in this race, underlining that in race trim the AMR26 was at least capable of moving forward in traffic.
Race Qualifying
A few hours later the cars reassembled to start Qualifying for the main Grand Prix. Both Aston Martins headed out on track promptly in Q1 and briefly appeared competitive while the track was relatively quiet, with Alonso running as high as fourth during his initial runs. However, as the session evolved and the rest of the field completed representative initial laps, Alonso slipped down to P18 and Stroll P19. Neither driver was able to extract the improvement required to progress and they remained firmly embedded in the same positions, in the elimination zone, until the end of the round. At the front, teenager Antonelli was fastest, followed by Leclerc and Verstappen. In the next round, Q2, it was Verstappen who set the fastest time, outpacing Antonelli and Leclerc but in the final round, Antonelli turned the tables and claimed pole position, Verstappen was 2nd and Leclerc 3rd.
Race
Following an action-packed build-up on Saturday, the attentions of the paddock shifted to Sunday’s 57-lap race, the start of which was reset to commence three hours earlier due to heavy rainstorms being forecast for later in the day. It was also announced that Red Bulls Isack Hadjar was disqualified from Qualifying and would start the race from the pit lane after his RB22 floor was found to be illegal for being two millimetres beyond the dimensions defined in the technical regulations. That moved Alonso up to 17th on the starting grid and Stroll up to 18th – both would start on medium tyres. The formation lap passed off without incident and as soon as the red lights went out and the cars charged into the first corner, battles commenced. Polesitter Antonelli found himself with Verstappen and a fast-launching Leclerc on each side of his Mercedes. The Italian locked up, as did the Dutchman, who also had contact with Leclerc and ended up spinning around 360 degrees, narrowly avoiding any further incidents as the pack steamed around him. This allowed Leclerc into the lead ahead of Antonelli and the McLarens of Norris and Piastri. Further down the grid Alonso dropped to P20 but Stroll had hauled his AMR26 up to P16. However, very soon the much faster Red Bull with Hadjar at the wheel caught and passed Stroll at the start of lap 4 – but not for long, as Hadjar proceeded to crash out of the race on lap 6. Then, moments later, in a separate incident, Gasly went into the barriers, his Alpine flipping over following contact with Lawson’s Racing Bull. Immediately the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and then the full Safety Car, which was followed at a controlled pace by the race leaders; Leclerc, Norris & Antonelli. As result of all the accidents and collateral damage Stroll had moved up to P15, Alonso P17, with Verstappen in between them. The Safety Car came in on lap 11 and Verstappen quickly passed Stroll on the restart, while Norris took over the lead of the race. Also after the restart Bottas passed Alonso, but Alonso settled into a rhythm and passed Stroll on lap 16 and went in pursuit of Bottas, whom he caught and passed on lap 20 and pulled clear. Although the weather radar was indicating a rain shower was expected, when Stroll came into the pits on lap 22, the team fitted him with soft slick tyres, which allowed him to catch and pass Bottas on lap 24. When spots of rain on the pit straight were reported Mercedes brought Antonelli in for fresh tyres, but Norris was only called in a lap later, had a slowish stop and came out behind Antonelli. That meant that at the halfway stage the leading race order was Piastri, Verstappen, Antonelli & Norris - Alonso was P16, Stroll P17. Alonso gained a couple more places when Lindblad and Perez came in for their tyre changes on lap 31, but Lindblad caught and passed Alonso on lap 34. With his tyres seemingly not getting up to temperature Stroll came into the pits again for a fresh set of soft tyres on lap 37. Alonso, meanwhile, went all the way to lap 41 before coming into the pits for the first time and taking on a new set of soft tyres. He emerged 16th, just in front of Stroll, in 17th and on his fresh tyres Alonso soon caught up to Perez ahead of him. For the next 8 laps they battled and traded places. Despite having fresher tyres and appearing quicker through the corners, Alonso struggled to complete the overtake due to the lack of straight-line speed. Eventually though, on lap 53 Alonso passed Perez and kept the place. He held that 15th position until the finish, with Stroll crossing the line in 17th – it was reassuring to see them both finish the race (both races if the Sprint is included!). At the front, Antonelli won the race, his third in a row, followed to the flag by the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri, who had a dramatic scrap with Leclerc on the final lap, who ploughed his Ferrari into a wall after being passed by Piastri.
Reaction and Comments
For Aston Martin, the final classification of 15th & 17th marked the team’s first double finish of the season, raising the possibility that reliability has stabilised sufficiently to allow both cars to reach the chequered flag, and in race conditions there is evidence that the car can compete within the lower midfield. What was also notable was that the serious vibration issues affecting the battery seemed to have been resolved, but other problems remain. Here’s Alonso’s view on those, “It's good to have both cars finish the race for the first time this season. The team have been working really hard on the vibrations and reliability. It's a relief that the Power Unit vibration issues have improved which was a big focus over the break. Unfortunately, we had some gearbox issues which limited us, so we need to understand. It was more the gearbox the whole weekend rather than the engine — the electronics, something was very weird on the downshifts and the upshifts, so not very well controlled. So yeah, that's the fix number one for Canada. I think with all the heavy braking zones in Canada, we need to improve the gearbox behaviour at the moment." Stroll was rather more forthright and subdued summarising his race weekend. “In hindsight, our tyre strategy didn't work out but from a reliability perspective we've made a step in the right direction. We now need to work on our performance-related issues. There are lots of areas for us to improve on. We have no downforce and we have no power."
Clearly a lot to accomplish still by the team in the next 10 days prior to the race in Montreal, Canada. No upgrades are expected to be applied to the car so all the focus will be on enhancing the performance of the power unit.