Journalist suggests 23-year-old has been the most improved driver on the F1 grid this season

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Journalist Tom Clarkson has suggested that AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda has been the most improved person on the grid this Formula 1 season.

Clarkson was speaking to Sky F1 journalist Natalie Pinkham on the F1 Nation Podcast.

They were talking about the most recent race in Barcelona that was comfortably won by Max Verstappen.

He was joined on the podium by both Mercedes drivers with George Russell in particular performing brilliantly.

Yuki Tsunoda initially crossed the finish line in ninth place after improving from 15^th after qualifying.

Unfortunately, an incident with Guanyu Zhou saw him pick up a five-second time penalty, dropping him out of the points.

Despite this, Clarkson has suggested that Tsunoda has been the most improved driver on the grid.

His new teammate Nyck De Vries arrived in F1 with high expectations given his performances in other series and an impressive cameo with Williams last season.

However, Tsunoda has comfortably outperformed him all season and picked up both of AlphaTauri’s points this year.

Tsunoda F1’s most improved driver – Clarkson

Speaking about the Japanese driver, Natalie Pinkham said: “It did feel unfair [his penalty in Barcelona]. I think Yuki’s [Tsunoda] been on a bit of a roll and it felt as if he really did deserve to be in the points in Spain.

“It was not to be so my hope is that this has further galvanized the young Japanese driver and he will come out even stronger in Canada with a strong result.

Tom Clarkson agreed: “I think Yuki’s been driving brilliantly this year and with such passion. I don’t know if you saw him after the race in Spain but he was really gutted.

“That photograph of him just slumped down next to a wall, he was exhausted, he was mentally struggling with what had happened as he was obviously going to finish in the points and then that five-second penalty dropped him back to 12^th.

“But I think he’ll come back fighting. Yuki has made, I think, the biggest step year-on-year of any driver on the grid from 2022 into 2023. It’s stunning what he’s been able to do.”

Tsunoda has improved even some engineers on the grid with how much he’s improved this season.

It’s his third campaign in F1 and he will hope that he does enough with AlphaTauri to eventually grab the attention of parent team Red Bull.

Whether he will ever be up to the task of challenging Max Verstappen is another matter.

But the claim that Tsunoda is the most improved driver on the grid is hard to argue with right now.