Starting again from the USA
The unusual spring break of over a month in the Formula 1 calendar, caused by the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs due to the war that broke out in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, has inevitably further increased the anticipation for the Miami GP. The Florida race will represent a sort of ‘second start’ to the season, with most teams bringing a significant series of updates to their single-seaters to America.
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The circuit built around the Hard Rock Stadium entered the calendar in 2022 following a very strong push from Liberty Media and immediately became a highlight of the calendar, albeit more for the glamour and spectacle surrounding the race than for the characteristics of the track itself. However, there is a peculiar statistic that makes the Miami event a unicum – at least for now – within the calendar.
‘Cursed’ pole and front row
In four events in Florida, no driver starting from the front row has ever won. This is the only Grand Prix currently on the calendar to present this curious statistical fact. In the first two editions, 2022 and 2023, the race was won by Max Verstappen, who, however, started from the third position in the first case and even from the ninth in the second, with the front row occupied by the Leclerc-Sainz pair in one case and Perez-Alonso in the other.
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In the subsequent two editions, 2024 and 2025, Verstappen, however, moved to the ‘wrong’ side of the statistic, conquering two pole positions that were not converted into victories: the 2024 GP instead saw Lando Norris’s first career victory – who started from the third row in fifth position – while last year the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri won, having started from the fourth position in the second row.
This year’s prediction is inevitably directed towards Mercedes, which won the first three GPs of 2026 with George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, always monopolizing the entire front row. Will this be the right occasion to break the curse that seems to hang over the first two positions on the Miami grid?
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