- Wolff silences 2026 regulation critics after Antonelli’s chaotic Miami victory.
- Crashes, pit-stop drama and wheel-to-wheel action delivered the spectacle.
- Mercedes saves its major upgrade package for Canada as rivals close the gap.
Toto Wolff dared anyone to criticise Formula 1 after Kimi Antonelli won a chaotic Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
The race delivered what the Mercedes team principal called “great advertising” for the sport’s contentious 2026 regulations.
Antonelli crossed the line 3.2 seconds ahead of Lando Norris to claim his third consecutive victory of the season, extending his championship lead to 20 points over teammate George Russell, who finished fourth.
“If there’s one single person that complains about the race today, I think they should hide, honestly,” Wolff told RacingNews365, after the race.
Miami delivers the spectacle F1 needed
Formula 1 arrived in Miami carrying some baggage. The Saudi Arabian and Bahrain rounds had been cancelled due to the conflict in the Middle East, leaving the sport on a five-week unplanned break.
The FIA had also moved to address mounting criticism of the new regulations before the race weekend.
The governing body raised the super clipping allowance to the full 350 kilowatts and cut the qualifying harvesting limit from eight to seven megajoules.
The race itself gave the new rules a leg to stand on. Polesitter Antonelli immediately found himself battling Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc at the first corner, with both the Mercedes and the Red Bull locking up.
Verstappen spun and dropped down the order. From there, five different drivers, Antonelli, Leclerc, Norris, Oscar Piastri and Verstappen, all led at some point.
Crashes for Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly brought out the safety car in the early laps, adding further disorder to proceedings.
Antonelli eventually settled the contest through strategy. He jumped Norris in the pit stops through an undercut, and the two went wheel-to-wheel at the pit exit before the young Italian pulled clear to win.
Wolff fires back at the critics
The Mercedes Team boss was measured in one respect. He acknowledged that the Miami circuit, with its frequent braking zones, allows batteries to recharge more easily than at other venues.
The track is “a little bit easier” and “not so energy-starved,” he said, conceding that the layout suited the 2026 cars better than most.
But he drew a firm line against using that caveat as grounds to push for immediate regulatory change.
“Whoever talks about changing engine regs in the short-term should question his way of assessing Formula 1 at that stage,” he told reporters. “So spectacular race. Fight for the lead, fight in the midfield.”
For the Austrian, the broader picture was clear.
“There’s good games, and there’s bad games, so I think that was great, great advertising for F1,” he said.
He did, however, leave some room for longer-term evolution, saying Mercedes would “never be against making the show even better” and pointing to straight-line speed settings as a potential area for improvement.
The other side of the debate
Wolff’s defence of the regulations lands in an environment where some of the sport’s most prominent voices remain openly hostile to them.
Verstappen has called the new cars “not very Formula 1-like” and compared them to “Formula E on steroids.”
In March, he said anyone who enjoys the 2026 rules “doesn’t understand racing.” Even after Miami, Norris said the only real fix would be to remove the battery altogether.
Fernando Alonso has called it the “battery world championship.”
The split in opinion follows an obvious pattern. The drivers most enthusiastic about the new regulations are those in the fastest cars.
Mercedes has won all four grands prix this season. Ferrari has been competitive. Verstappen, Norris and Alonso, three world champions who have each had difficult starts to the new regulatory cycle, are the ones demanding change.
Wolff himself has the clearest possible reason to defend the status quo, and the paddock’s sceptics have not missed that.
Whether Miami’s racing holds up as evidence for the regulations, or simply as a product of a circuit that complements them, will become clearer at venues where energy harvesting is far more demanding.
The development race heads to Canada
Miami also confirmed that Mercedes’ grip on the competitive order is loosening. Ferrari brought 11 new components to the race weekend, the most of any team.
Red Bull and McLaren each brought seven updates. Mercedes brought two minor changes, holding its larger package back for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on May 24.
The updates made a visible difference. Norris took pole in sprint qualifying, becoming the first non-Mercedes driver to achieve that in 2026.
McLaren’s one-two in the sprint ended Mercedes’ unbeaten run for the season.
Verstappen, who had complained of a steering issue since pre-season testing, arrived with revised sidepods, a reworked rear wing and a fix for that problem. He qualified on the front row for the main race.
Wolff did not pretend otherwise.
“The McLarens have made a big step. Red Bull on pure pace was massive in qualifying,” he told the media, as reported by RacingNews365. He urged his team to keep pushing.
“We just got to keep developing, because this is a development race throughout the season.”
He also cautioned that upgrades do not always translate directly to lap time, telling Sky Sports F1: “Sometimes upgrades don’t correlate with the stopwatch, so we need to prove that out.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella confirmed further upgrades are planned for both Canada and Monaco.
Montreal will test Mercedes’ larger package and give the sport its next answer on whether Miami was a turning point or simply a circuit that suited the moment.
