FIA announce Ferrari F1 punishment at Miami Grand Prix

lewis hamilton, fred vasseur, charles leclerc, ferrari, fia, edit — Photo: © IMAGO

Miami Grand Prix

FIA announce Ferrari punishment at Miami Grand Prix

The stewards have been busy in Miami

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 2 May 2026 01:04

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc has been hit with a punishment from FIA race stewards at the Miami Grand Prix.

Leclerc is driving a new and improved SF-26 this weekend, with Ferrari hoping that they can begin mounting a challenge for the championship title following a five-week break from the sport.

Ferrari headed to this weekend's Miami GP second in the constructors' championship, but with a sprint weekend ahead of them in which a maximum of 58 points are on offer for the teams.

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But before the weekend had properly got going, Leclerc got into a bit of hot water with the stewards during the one and only practice session of the event on Friday.

FP1 was extended to 90 minutes for the Miami GP weekend, with it being the only practice session before the competitive action got underway later on Friday with sprint qualifying.

But despite the extended session time, Leclerc was clearly in a hurry, and the Ferrari driver was caught out by FIA stewards.

Leclerc was placed under investigation for speeding in the pit lane during FP1, and was found to have been 1.4km/h over the 80km/h pit lane speed limit.

As a result, Ferrari were fined €200, but no sporting penalty was handed to Leclerc or his Ferrari team, with it only being a small infringement, and the offence only being in a practice session.

Ferrari's Miami GP changes

The car that Ferrari have brought to Miami has been described in Italian media as a 'one-and-a-half car', with it having many new features on it compared to the early stages of 2026.

In total, 11 changes have been detailed on an FIA document ahead of the Miami GP, which shows the declared upgrades that each team have brought to the circuit.

Ferrari have tweaked the front wing endplate and the front corner of their car, aiming for more flow feature stability. The front suspension has also been tweaked, designed to bring load gains and better management of downstream impacts.

The floor is where a lot of the work has been done. The floor body, floor edge and diffuser have all been altered to focus on load increase across what Ferrari describe as the 'full operating window. Rear suspension tweaks provide a 'favourable pressure gradient' for the diffuser.

Big changes have been made to the rear of Hamilton and Leclerc's cars. The 'macarena' rear wing design has been implemented, a folding rear wing which is designed to maximise aerodynamic drag when the car is in active aero mode. This means that they have reprofiled the mainplane and flap, added a central bracket flap and reworked the pylon/mainplane junction.

To make the macarena design work, the rear wing endplates have also had to be tweaked, focusing more on flow conditioning.

F1 Ferrari FIA Charles Leclerc Miami Grand Prix