Miami GP’s newest seats tower over the track, with a $95,000 cabana to match

There’s one thing new at the Miami Grand Prix in 2026.

Outside the Formula 1 paddock — which is totally enclosed in the Hard Rock Stadium — or when watching on TV, it is apparent. An enormous ‘yacht’, rising 50ft into the air, sitting at 264ft lengthy, dominating the house above the Miami International Autodrome’s Turn 8.

This is the newest high-profile hospitality creation from the Miami GP crew, recognized for constructing a “fake marina” for the inaugural race right here in 2022 and for one among the largest Paddock Club buildings, with room for 9,000 individuals, deliberate for 2027.

For the new yacht, there’s a ticket possibility sitting at a big $95,000 — albeit giving entry for 20 individuals. The Miami GP has struggled to shake criticism over costs because it charged $500 for race-day basic admission passes at its first race in 2022.

“I love entertainment in America,” Alpine driver Pierre Gasly stated on Thursday when TheAthletic requested for his ideas on the occasion.

“Whatever they do, they do it in a big way and in a big fashion. They managed to create an atmosphere and hype around the event, which makes it very unique. Everywhere you walk around, as soon as you get to the track, it just feels quite different.”

It definitely does. Since the day it joined the F1 calendar in 2022, the Miami race, which has a deal to run every year until at least 2041you may have stood out.

No different F1 observe has a paddock fairly like the one at Hard Rock Stadium, the residence of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

Much of the criticism has targeted on the “fake marina” that the MSC Yacht Club is successfully changing this yr, the place a choice of smaller speedboats had been encased in boards painted to seem like the cool blue waters of Miami Beach and South Beach.

But the race has taken this method for a cause. Ace TheAthletic Explored in 2025, the Miami race has grow to be a key occasion for sponsors searching for to do enterprise with F1 organizations and vice versa, in the sport’s rising US market.

“Everyone was surprised to see when we turned up with real yachts and fake water that got a lot of news and press, which we’re… thankful for,” Miami GP president Katharina Nowak advised reporters on Thursday.

“But it also turned into the iconic moment for Miami, and we decided to continue to read into that further this year.”

The race organizers had been additionally decided to make a splash at the fifth Miami GP, so that they took one other take a look at the marina setting. Nowak stated his crew started planning the 2026 version that finally turned the MSC Yacht Club in the days after Oscar Piastri won the 2025 Miami GP for McLaren.

“We started thinking about how we can continue to raise the bar each year,” Nowak stated. “And so the challenge for us this year was how do we stay authentically Miami but continue to develop and innovate in the way that we bring racing and motorsports experience to our fans?

“The one way we wanted to do that was by elevating the view, and we had only one way to do that, which was to build up.”

The outcome was the 32,000-square-foot MSC Yacht Club, which, at its lowest level, stands half as excessive as the many different hospitality buildings that line this 3.36-mile observe.

A view of the deck on the Yacht Club (Miami GP)

The non permanent construction rises over 5 ranges, contains a number of swimming swimming pools, and has foods and drinks stands all through. It presents vast views of the flowing finish of the Miami observe’s first sector, with the observe wrapping round the yacht in the south-east nook of the sprawling venue.

Nine ‘non-public cabanas’ on the lowest degree present close-up views of the F1 vehicles — and it’s this space that prices begin at the headline $95,000 for all-weekend entry for up to 20 individuals. Prices for the yacht’s different decks sit between $4,500 and $4,700. The worth for a weekend basic admission ticket lately is $430, whereas a typical grandstand seat prices $700.

A small part of the “fake marina” stays inside Turn 8. But now, followers with all ticket sorts can entry this space throughout the race weekend, whereas earlier than it remained a devoted hospitality space.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be developing the marina into something that fans have never seen before,” stated Nowak.

“We went with a really big yacht, but also didn’t lose that part of our inner-marina experience, so the rest of the marina is completely open to all the fans on campus.”

Nowak additionally stated that his crew had created “something that I think no other racetrack has ever seen before.”

Monaco and Abu Dhabi have actual harbors for actual boats. Singapore’s observe is named Marina Bay. But Miami is following its personal path in making the Florida metropolis’s well-known waterways a bodily a part of its observe, the place those that can afford it may well climb, wine and dine in a very totally different, very unique world.

As Gasly referenced, there will be little doubt that it is one other “big” component of a race that’s right here to keep.