Winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli isn’t yet toppled from PlanetF1.com’s list of Winners, but who else features, and who has made the Losers list in Miami?

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix.

Winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

Three race wins in a row mean a steady building of momentum for the championship leader, who always looked like he had plenty of speed throughout the entire weekend.

While his execution was far from perfect, particularly in Saturday’s Sprint race, Sunday was a firm indication that Antonelli’s self-belief and versatility is increasing with every weekend.

The start, once again, wasn’t great. But, like on Saturday, this was largely down to Mercedes not quite predicting the amount of grip available off the line, rather than being specifically about Antonelli’s actions.

With Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen getting stuck into battle at the front, Antonelli lost out in the melee but, following a successful undercut strategy, found himself in a tense stand-off with Norris.

This went on, lap after lap, with the reigning World Champion piling on the pressure on the young Italian, but Antonelli simply never cracked.

“It was a good race, a very special one,” he said afterwards.

“It was not an easy one because I had a bit of everything. OK, the start was still not great, plus I did a mistake, then I was lucky with how things played out despite the mistake.

“And then, yeah, then obviously we were in a fight, me, Charles and Lando, and then I got passed by Lando, did a little mistake on energy, and then I was chasing.

“And then luckily the undercut worked very well, and then we found ourselves being chased. But it was not easy because Lando was quick and he was applying a lot of pressure. And I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes.”

Added to the pressure was the slippy track surface off the racing line, meaning that the whole situation was very “stressful” throughout.

“[Lando] was also sometimes on the edge of getting so many times the overtake mode,” Antonelli said.

“We know how powerful that is and I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes. And it was not easy because the conditions were tricky today, with the rain that kind of cleaned a bit the rubber that was on track, and it was very slippery.”

On top of that was a wheel connectivity issue that meant there was a handful of laps in which his gears started acting up: his W17 didn’t always want to downshift, and occasionally wouldn’t select eighth gear, before the matter calmed back down again.

“Obviously, it was adding stress because I was being chased and I knew I couldn’t make any mistakes, and that wasn’t helping for sure,” he said.

“But then it lasted very shortly, so I was happy with that.”

With Antonelli making such an incredible start to the season, he’s now established some clear air between himself and his far more experienced teammate George Russell; a driver that team boss Toto Wolff said will be a “killer” throughout the season.

Miami was a venue at which Antonelli was similarly fast, but scrappy, last year, and there are obvious question marks to be answered once the European season starts – the sequence of races in which he struggled in his rookie season.

But, in the here and now, Antonelli is showing exactly why Mercedes had so much confidence in his abilities prior to arriving in F1, and his staggeringly strong start is without peer: right now, even with Mercedes’ dominance seemingly having been cut, no-one can get near him.

Loser: Max Verstappen

I had to think long and hard about whether Verstappen was a winner or a loser from Sunday’s race.

After all, there are plenty of positives to take away: Verstappen was properly in the fight at the front once again for the first time this year, he’s happier with the handling and behaviour of the RB22, and his slicing through the pack on his fresh hard tyres was decisive and irrepressible.

Added to that was his Driver of the Day award, and there’s no doubting the fact that it was an overall strong showing from the Dutch driver.

But I’m going to place him in the losers column, simply due to the fact that it was an occasion in which, for once, Verstappen failed to deliver the best possible result his car was capable of.

It’s testimony to his usual standards that his first-lap spin was highly unusual, and there was nothing fortuitous about the way he gathered the car back up instantly after losing control through Turn 2.

It’s not the first time Verstappen has shown a unique ability to dance on the throttle and brake pedals to get the car back pointing in the right direction almost immediately, and the fact that he only slipped down to ninth despite doing a full 360-degree spin was a hands-clappingly enjoyable display of his skill.

Luck did enter the equation in that he was extremely fortunate not to have been collected by any of the rest of the pack behind, and the early Safety Car then gave him the chance to roll the dice on strategy by making a switch to the hard tyre.

However, as he explained afterwards, the hard tyre wasn’t as competitive for Red Bull as the medium and, combined with the long stint, it meant slipping back through the pack was inevitable as others on fresher tyres came back at him.

What Sunday suggests is that, at least at some venues with fewer of the high-speed corners that the RB22 apparently doesn’t like so much, Verstappen can be in the hunt. But was victory on the cards in Miami?

“The race pace was strong, confirming the good sign shown in quali,” Laurent Mekies said afterward.

“Not strong enough for P1 or P2, but perhaps able to see the fight between P3, P4 and P5, so something that we had not shown so far this season.”

Winner: Lando Norris

Having gained track position on eventual race winner Antonelli, the reigning F1 World Champion leading the Grand Prix after dominating the Sprint meant it seemed a safe bet that the British driver could make a clean sweep of the Miami weekend.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be: Mercedes’ powerful undercut with Antonelli meant the Italian came out in front and, while Norris ladled on the pressure, the Italian wouldn’t crack.

“We just got undercut,” Norris lamented afterwards.

“There’s no excuses other than that. We got undercut. We should have boxed first. Kimi did a good job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi. They drove a good race. Easy to make mistakes out there with the big braking zones and with these cars, but he didn’t make any big enough for me to capitalise on, so I have to be happy.

“I think as a team we have to be happy. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today, but yeah, not the pace to get back past him in the end, so we take it on the chin. But it’s still a positive weekend altogether.”

After a difficult start to the season, McLaren’s progress has been eye-opening in its efficiency and speed, and, had Norris not lost out on track position to Antonelli, looked to have the pace to potentially keep the Mercedes behind.

With upgrades en route again in Montreal, Norris’ title defence no longer looks an impossibility, although it will mean McLaren will need to ensure opportunities like Miami don’t go begging.

“The fact we made such a big step this weekend is great to see and I’m very proud of the team,” he said.

“And all the work that’s been put in has paid off immediately. But you always have to look at it and ask yourself the question, do you feel like you maximised everything today? And I’m unsure about that.

“So, I feel like there was a chance that we could have fought better for it, just not simply letting him undercut us. I know he came and passed me on track because he had just the warmer tyres out of Turn 2, but we should have just never been in that situation in the first place.

“I’m not saying we would have won the race because I think Kimi drove an excellent race and his pace was very strong, especially his pace end of stints was incredibly strong.

“So, he might have still passed me later on in the second stint if we boxed earlier, but at least we would have given ourselves a fighting chance, and we didn’t give that to ourselves today. So, I’m a little bit disappointed by that.”

More from the Miami Grand Prix

Storm threat forces Miami GP start time change

Miami Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli snatches pole in thrilling qualifying battle

Loser: Charles Leclerc

From leading the race in the early stages after a storming start and a rare opportunity to spook Verstappen, Charles Leclerc’s race slowly but surely unravelled throughout.

This started with the timing of his stop, with the Monegasque immediately questioning the decision. And rightly so, as he ended up behind even Mercedes’ Russell, completely changing the complexion of his entire afternoon in one fell swoop.

The podium slipped away right at the end as Piastri cleared him after a tense scrap, but fourth-place immediately went begging as Leclerc spun all by himself in a similar incident to what befell Verstappen on the first lap.

The differences were that Verstappen’s was on cold tyres and the pendulum effect of a heavy fuel load, while Leclerc’s was simply a case of exceeding the limits of adhesion on aging tyres.

In his efforts to gather it back up, he clipped the barrier and suffered damage to the car; he reckoned a puncture and suspension damage was the diagnosis when he appeared before the media shortly afterwards, having been unable to turn right as he limped home.

His cutting the track in these efforts to get to the chequered flag meant he was investigated and penalised, relegating him to eighth place.

“I’m very disappointed with myself. It’s all on me, and it’s a mistake,” he said.

“I obviously need to look because, with these cars, you always have a bit of the question mark of how much it deploys.

“And, considering it was the last lap, maybe there was a bit more out of that corner, as you just need to finish the lap with that amount of energy. But that’s not an excuse in any way. It’s all on me, and it’s not acceptable. So I need to look at that.”

Winner: Franco Colapinto

Where has this Franco Colapinto been for the last year or so? The Argentine driver looks completely reinvigorated recently, and even had the measure of Pierre Gasly around the Miami International Autodrome.

This was on top of him not having the same upgraded rear wing as the French driver, although any meaningful comparisons over a race distance couldn’t be made as Gasly was taken out by a helpless Liam Lawson following a gearbox failure on the Racing Bulls car.

With Alpine clearly moving forward in the midfield, Colapinto is raising his game similarly and, aside from perhaps an unnecessary bit of contact with Hamilton on the first lap, was flawless.

He brought the car home in eighth, rising to seventh as Leclerc was penalised, meaning that he has taken his career-best finish to eclipse his eighth place at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“I think it’s been my most perfect weekend [at Alpine],” he said.

“I am very happy with the weekend. It’s been executed really well. I think we maximised every session and we scored strong points.

“So it’s been a weekend for all of us to be very proud, and we’ll try to do better again in Canada.”

With Colapinto coming into F1 2025 aware of the threat of Alex Dunne after a strong maiden F2 season for the Irishman earned him a place on the Alpine Academy, his improved performances mean that potential threat to his seat is rapidly fading.

Loser: Isack Hadjar

A difficult weekend for Isack Hadjar, who is starting to discover just what it means to be Max Verstappen’s teammate.

The upgrade package introduced to the Red Bull, which undoubtedly added some performance, saw Verstappen immediately able to ride the tide upward and exploit the speed, despite the trickiness of handling.

Hadjar, who hadn’t looked completely out of sorts relative to Verstappen before the break, very much did so in Miami, although his job was made far more difficult by a team error on his floor that meant he was disqualified and had to start from the back.

Starting on the hard tyre, the only driver not to plump for the mediums, Hadjar had made steady progress to climb past Arvid Lindblad into 15th place when he, in his own words, “found the limit” and struck the inside wall at the tricky chicane.

Immediately breaking his suspension, he bounced across the inside of the right-hand follow-up before colliding with the outside wall, and was visibly distraught with himself.

Taking his time climbing out of the car as he continued to berate himself with steering wheel pummels and helmet bashing, it was no surprise that it took until close to the race end before Hadjar appeared in the media pen to talk about the incident.

Having cooled down, Hadjar, now notorious for how hard he is on himself, admitted that he “couldn’t pull it together”, while explaining that the car itself had clearly made a step forward.

“This is a tough one, just like breaking the car is pissing me off a lot,” he said ,”and also, considering the car I had, I just threw it all away.”

While a lot has changed at Red Bull over the last year, the pattern of the second driver starting to struggle with a peakier car that Verstappen can handle is a familiar one: is that what’s happening at this early stage of F1 2026, or does Occam’s Razor apply?

Could Hadjar’s sporadic Miami weekend be more down to the simple fact that he is an inexperienced driver finding his feet in a competitive team? For the sake of the French driver, you’d hope that it’s the latter.

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