Sky journalist admits they can’t believe how much one F1 team have improved this year

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Sky Sports journalist Natalie Pinkham has admitted that she can’t believe how much Formula 1 team McLaren have improved this year.

Pinkham was joined by Damon Hill and Tom Clarkson on the F1 Nation Podcast.

There’s been plenty of change throughout the F1 grid this year, except for at the very front.

Red Bull and specifically Max Verstappen have been simply unstoppable this year.

However, behind the Dutchman is been a very exciting season to see who will be the best of the rest.

At the start of the year, it appeared as though Aston Martin would be their nearest challenger.

Fernando Alonso was almost a permanent feature on the podium but they’ve now fallen away.

Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have now all arguably overtaken Aston Martin in terms of pace.

And Natalie Pinkham believes McLaren have been the most improved team on the grid.

It’s hard to disagree considering how much Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled at the beginning of the year.

Pinkham thinks McLaren are most improved F1 team this year

Asked who has had the best season so far aside from Red Bull, Pinkham said: “I have to say, McLaren. I mean to think that Lando [Norris] had three P17s in Bahrain, Saudi [Arabia] and Miami and then to be finishing on the podium in consecutive races in Silverstone and Hungary.

“And then to be really in the fight, I mean [Oscar] Piastri had an awesome weekend in Spa before that horrible moment in lap one, turn one for the race itself.

“McLaren have been nothing short of remarkable and I think actually what it should do is give hope to the others that an upgrade like that can really turn the season back around for them.”

Many F1 fans will agree with Pinkham that McLaren have improved drastically more than any of their rivals.

They’ve also been aided by having two of the fastest young drivers on the grid.

Norris and Piastri both look capable of winning a race this season if the Red Bull team ever has a reliability issue.

The summer shutdown should mean that the other teams can’t have caught up too much with McLaren.

However, it’ll be interesting to see if they’re still the best of the rest when they arrive at Zandvoort next weekend.