There’s something new at the Miami Grand Prix in 2026.
Outside the Formula 1 paddock — which is fully enclosed in the Hard Rock Stadium — or when watching on TV, it’s obvious. A huge ‘yacht’, rising 50ft into the air, sitting at 264ft long, dominating the space above the Miami International Autodrome’s Turn 8.
This is the latest high-profile hospitality creation from the Miami GP team, known for building a “fake marina” for the inaugural race here in 2022 and for one of the largest Paddock Club buildings, with room for 9,000 people, planned for 2027.
For the new yacht, there is a ticket option sitting at a huge $95,000 — albeit giving access for 20 people. The Miami GP has struggled to shake criticism over prices since it charged $500 for race-day general admission passes at its first race in 2022.
“I love entertainment in America,” Alpine driver Pierre Gasly said on Thursday when The Athletic asked for his thoughts on the event.
“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 certainly does. From the day it joined the F1 calendar in 2022, the Miami race, which has a deal to run every year until at least 2041, has stood out.
No other F1 track has a paddock quite like the one at Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
Much of the criticism has centered on the “fake marina” that the MSC Yacht Club is effectively replacing this year, where a selection of smaller speedboats were encased in boards painted to look like the cool blue waters of Miami Beach and South Beach.
The infamous marina, seen here in 2022, has been replaced by the Yacht Club (Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
But the race has taken this approach for a reason. As The Athletic explored in 2025, the Miami race has become a key event for sponsors seeking to do business with F1 organizations and vice versa, in the sport’s growing U.S. 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 told reporters on Thursday.
“But it also turned into the iconic moment for Miami, and we decided to continue to lean into that further this year.”
The race organizers were also determined to make a splash at the fifth Miami GP, so they took another look at the marina setting. Nowak said her team began planning the 2026 edition that eventually became 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 said. “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 result was the 32,000-square-foot MSC Yacht Club, which, at its lowest point, stands half as high as the many other hospitality structures that line this 3.36-mile track.
A view of the deck on the Yacht Club (Miami GP)
The temporary structure rises over five levels, includes several swimming pools, and has food and drink stands throughout. It offers wide views of the flowing end of the Miami track’s first sector, with the track wrapping around the yacht in the south-east corner of the sprawling venue.
Nine ‘private cabanas’ on the lowest level provide close-up views of the F1 cars — and it is this area that costs start at the headline $95,000 for all-weekend access for up to 20 people. Prices for the yacht’s other decks sit between $4,500 and $4,700. The price for a weekend general admission ticket these days is $430, while a typical grandstand seat costs $700.
A small section of the “fake marina” remains inside Turn 8. But now, fans with all ticket types can access this area across the race weekend, whereas before it remained a dedicated hospitality area.
“We could not be more excited to be developing the marina into something that fans have never seen before,” said 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 also said that her team had created “something that I think no other racetrack has ever seen before.”
Monaco and Abu Dhabi have real harbors for real boats. Singapore’s track is called Marina Bay. But Miami is plowing its own path in making the Florida city’s famous waterways a physical part of its track, where those who can afford it can climb, wine and dine in a very different, very exclusive world.
As Gasly referenced, there can be no doubt that it’s another “big” element of a race that is here to stay.
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