FIA declare Miami GP 'rain hazard' as thunderstorms loom

The FIA has formally declared that a "rain hazard" will be in place for the Miami Grand Prix as the threat of thunderstorms looms. 

Discussions are taking place regarding moving the start time of Sunday's race forward from the original 1600 local time start, owing to consistent weather forecasts showing heavy and persistent thunderstorms, which could make racing impossible, given the 2025 Sprint was delayed owing to heavy rain. 

Under US law, and often seen in NASCAR and IndyCar, any outdoor sporting event is covered by an eight-mile lightning radius rule.

This means if there is a lightning strike with that radius, the event is immediately suspended before a 30-minute countdown begins. If there are no further strikes within the radius in that half an hour, the race can then resume, but if one comes at 29m:59s in, the clock resets to 30 minutes, with the process repeated until the full 30 minutes has passed.

F1's sporting regulations dictate that if the official weather service predicts a forecast of rain for the race being higher than 40%, a rain hazard will be declared.

Article B1.5.11 states that the rain hazard must be declared "no later than two hours" before the start of qualifying and "remain in force" from the declaration to the "end-of-session" signal for the race is shown. 

Following this, FIA race director Rui Marques issued the signal at 13:17 local time, some 2 hours and 43 minutes prior to the start of qualifying at 16:00 local.