{"id":633609,"date":"2026-04-27T07:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633609\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:29:15","slug":"mclaren-state-of-play-miami-grand-prix-daniel-ricciardo-red-bull-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633609\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren state of play, Miami Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

After five long weeks, we can finally say it’s race week again in Formula 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the grid observed an impromptu spring break due to the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain grands prix<\/a>, we’re set to finally see cars out on track – along with some new adjustments.<\/p>\n

Both the teams and governing body have been busy tweaking the F1 regulations<\/a> after many in the paddock were vocal about their distaste to the 2026 cars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The five week break handed most teams a much-needed opportunity to go back to the drawing board and see what they could improve for the next 18 races.<\/p>\n

As McLaren<\/a> admitted they will be bringing a “completely new car” to Miami and Montreal, the team’s leadership are still heeding a warning from a controversial race nearly a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo and Zak Brown worked together through the Aussie’s time at McLaren. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been increasingly against the prospect of Mercedes<\/a> purchasing the 24 per cent stake currently up for sale in the Alpine F1 team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Otro Capital – an investment group featuring major sports names such as Patrick Mahomes, Rory McIlroy and Anthony Joshua – has been searching for buyers for its stake.<\/p>\n

Brown fears that if Mercedes take ownership, they will use Alpine as a sister team.<\/p>\n

This is not a new dynamic in F1, Red Bull<\/a> bought Minardi in 2005 to create Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This A-B team structure has influenced championships over the years. Most recently, Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> helped Max Verstappen<\/a> steal a championship point from Lando Norris<\/a> by setting the fastest lap of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SINGAPORE,<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo was thanked by the Red Bull crew after he strategically took a point off Lando Norris. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Red Bull openly acknowledged the strategic choice to use their sister team in that instance, with Verstappen publicly thanking Ricciardo.<\/p>\n

Brown, who was Ricciardo’s boss during his time at McLaren, took aim at this strategic act in conversation with Sky Sports, illustrating his wider distaste for A and B teams in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been saying for 10 years, I don’t like co-ownership,” Brown explained.<\/p>\n

“I don’t like A-B teams. I think it runs a high risk of compromising the sporting integrity of the sport.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen fastest laps from one team. You know, Daniel Ricciardo (taking) a point away from McLaren to help Max Verstappen and Red Bull.”<\/p>\n

Despite the off-track politics, McLaren have been hard at work back in the Woking factory, searching for upgrades.<\/p>\n

Team principal Andrea Stella<\/a> is confident in their advancements over the break, particularly following the slight peak in performance during Oscar Piastri’s podium in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri’s podium in Japan gave lift to McLaren’s performance.\u00a0Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“Our intent was always to deliver sort of a completely new car, especially from an aerodynamic upgrades point of view, for the North American races,” said Stella.<\/p>\n

“The fact that the calendar changed helped a little, like, I’m sure it helped all the other teams that could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car, rather than being busy with racing.<\/p>\n

“I can say that, overall, across Miami and Canada, we will see an entirely new MCL40. Again, I would like to stress that this is what I would expect of most of our competitors.<\/p>\n

“It will effectively be just a check of who has been able to add more performance within the same timeframe.<\/p>\n

“We also have some performance to recover, if we look at Mercedes and, to some extent, Ferrari as well.<\/p>\n

“But we are quite happy with the development that we’ve been able to manage, like I said before, in the background.<\/p>\n

\"SUZUKA,<\/p>\n

McLaren are set to unveil a “completely new car” in Miami. \u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“So hopefully, we should be able to see a slightly more competitive MCL40 in Miami and then in Canada, considering that the last race was already a decent competitive performance in Japan.”<\/p>\n

While the sound of “regulation changes” and entirely “new cars” has fans excited to see a new breed of racing in North America, F1 commentator and former race winner David Coulthard<\/a> urged patience.<\/p>\n

He admitted that because of Miami’s circuit layout around Hard Rock Stadium, fans will need to temper their expectations as it’s unlikely they will see a visible difference in performance this weekend.<\/p>\n

“What’s going to be interesting to see is, and I think in Miami, we won’t necessarily see the results of these changes because of the nature of the race track there,” he explained on the Up To Speed podcast.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Miami’s track layout may not give fans a idea of what the new changes have achieved. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“A lot of slow and medium speed corners.<\/p>\n

“There isn’t really anything big and meaty, an iconic section of corners where you go, ‘Wow, I really saw the driver or the car do something special.’<\/p>\n

“So, I think we have to give it a few races.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After five long weeks, we can finally say it’s race week again in Formula 1. As the grid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-633609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}