FIA has contingency plan in place should the predicted storm hit Miami on Sunday.

Anyone who has been to Florida knows that when it rains, it rains. A typical storm might not last that long, but the skies darken and the subsequent downpour is torrential. And then there's the lightning.

There is currently an 85% chance of a thunderstorm hitting Miami on Sunday afternoon, round about the time the race gets underway.

While the start could be delayed in order to allow the storm to pass, and the track to dry, if lightning strikes within a 13km radius of an outdoor event protocol requires its immediate suspension.

The FIA is adamant that there will be no need to cancel the race should the predicted storm hit, as the Hard Rock Stadium offers ample protection.

"We are closely monitoring the weather forecast for this weekend," said an FIA spokesperson. "Having faced a similar situation last year in Miami with threats of thunderstorms, we have a contingency plan in place and will activate it if needed to minimise disruption to the on-track programme."

However, while the race might well go ahead, the fact is that the majority of the drivers have no experience of the 2026 cars in the wet.

"I drove the car when we did the shakedown in Silverstone in the wet and definitely it was very tricky," said Kimi Antonelli on Thursday. "Although now with the changes, they clipped the power to 250 kilowatts for the wet and no boost, so that's already a step forward in that regard.

"Definitely I think it's going to be tricky," he continued, "because there will be a lot of unknown, and obviously we're also going to be racing if the wet weather presents. But I think also another big topic is that we will need to increase tyre blanket temperatures for the wet because I think as they are now, probably they will be a bit too low for the conditions.

"It's going to be interesting to see, tricky, but let's see," smiled the Italian. "If it's thunderstorms, like they say, we probably also won't get under way for quite a bit of time. So, let's see how that goes. But definitely it's going to be very interesting because there's so much unknown in the wet at the moment, especially no one really used the inter tyres, so we don't know how it's going to feel, how much grip there will be, especially with the new regulation."

"It'll be interesting," said Oscar Piastri. "I don't think many of us have driven these cars in the rain before, maybe a couple of people in Barcelona at the shakedown. But I think they're going to be challenging cars to drive in the rain just because of some of the quirks that they have. And obviously the weather, normally if it rains in Miami, it does it properly, so we'll wait and see. But it'll be interesting one way or another."

Ahead of the weekend, and aware of the threat, the FIA announced that in low grip conditions the use of the boost will not be allowed - in much the same way as DRS was banned in similar conditions - the fear being that the full 350 kW available in normal conditions posed a serious safety concern.

"I've always been a bit of an advocate for the 350 kilowatts not being needed," said Carlos Sainz, "and I hope that we could find a way to maybe reduce it down to 250 or 300 for the race.

"As we saw last year, on the straights, a lot of standing water here. It's a super-flat track, the water stays on the surface and whether that's going to be safe enough or not, with the walls close to you and the visibility that we have with these cars, it is certainly going to be a concern. But yeah, I hope that we can take all the appropriate actions for it. We can have a good show, a good race.

"I think all drivers want to drive in the wet," he added. "Wet races are a lot of fun. Me, the first one, you guys know I love the wet. But hopefully with the right system and tools in place to make it safe. Also, there's this lightning risk that I don't know what will happen with. There are a few things, like the SLM (Straight-line Mode) in the wet only at the front, that I really don't understand why we have that if it doesn't reduce the drag much.

"So yeah, a few things to analyse, to put together, if Sunday is going to be wet, maybe to discuss in drivers' briefing so we can have all clear in our heads what we should expect and what we should go racing with."