Ted Kravitz is ‘perplexed’ by the sudden lack of downforce at McLaren after their ‘chassis king’ era

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Ted Kravitz was left ‘perplexed’ by the downforce difficulties that McLaren have been dealing with in 2026.

The Australian Grand Prix was a difficult weekend for the McLaren Formula 1 team, as they missed out on the podium in the opening race of the year.

Before the race had begun, Oscar Piastri crashed out of his home Grand Prix on the sighting lap. Lando Norris later finished the race in fifth place as his title defence began.

In 2025, McLaren started the year on the front foot, Norris won the Australian Grand Prix after holding a 0.895 second lead over Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

An advantage that McLaren lost out on over the winter, and the regulation changes that took place between 2025 and 2026.

How do you expect Oscar Piastri to respond to his Australian GP crash at the Chinese GP?

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Ted Kravitz believes McLaren ‘will hurt’ after the Australian Grand Prix

After the Australian Grand Prix, Ted Kravitz discussed the issues that McLaren are experiencing during Sky Sports F1’s The F1 Show podcast.

During the podcast, Kravitz explained that he has been left ‘perplexed’ after McLaren have begun experiencing issues with their chassis after years of having a dominant chassis.

He also highlighted how Norris finishing 51 seconds behind Australian Grand Prix winner, George Russell, will hurt McLaren.

Kravitz said, “I am quite perplexed as to whether McLaren, chassis kings of the last two years, inherently a car with less downforce than Mercedes, if so how has that happened, or if it is the advantage of being a works team.

“Andrea Stella has effectively said, ‘We need more grip, then we need to look at understanding the power unit as well as the works team understands the power unit’.

“So, that is one thing, and 51 seconds will hurt; they obviously have a lot of work ahead of them.”

What’s your take on Zak Brown’s reaction to Oscar Piastri’s crash? 🤔

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McLaren ‘need an aero upgrade’ after the Australian Grand Prix

With a clear downforce disadvantage to Mercedes after the opening round of the 2026 season, McLaren will need to work on bridging the gap to their power unit supplier.

Sky Sports Formula 1 analyst and co-commentator, Martin Brundle, wrote in his column about how McLaren ‘need an aero upgrade’ to improve as the season goes on.

Ralf Schumacher also spoke on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast about McLaren’s recent complaints about Mercedes withholding information regarding their power unit.

The German driver said, he doubts Mercedes would not supply their customer teams with information, “I would be surprised if the information wasn’t there at all, or only on the last day of testing. That can happen, but Mercedes is always very transparent about this.”