Again praise for Piastri: 'He's going to be very, very good'

"I think he will be very, very good," Michel said at a press meeting, where GPblog were present.

"In F3 and then F2, he showed how fast he could be in qualifying. As we said, it’s unusual to have drivers come in and win back to back championships as rookies. The examples we have are quite rare and the drivers are having an interesting career. I am really positive for Oscar."

Competition with Norris

According to Michel, it remains to be seen how Piastri will manage to compete with Lando Norris. "Now he knows as well that he will have a teammate who is one of the fastest in F1 at the moment, so he has to be immediately on the spot," Michel continued.

"So that is important for him to make sure he is at the level of Lando as soon as possible. It’s a challenge but I’m sure he will be up to it."

In the junior series, drivers are eager to follow in Piastri's footsteps and Michel believes there is plenty of talent. "The grid is going to be incredibly strong this season in F2. One of the strongest we have had for a few years. It’s fantastic, because we have almost half of the grid coming from F3, because we had a strong F3 grid last year. It will be very interesting to see how young drivers like Martins, Hadjar and Maloney are going to do against more experienced drivers like Doohan, Hauger and Fittipaldi."

No ultimate favourite

According to Michel, conclusions should not be drawn after last week's tests. "But I know for sure is that the young guys coming in are going to give a lot of work to do for the second or third-year drivers. We’ve seen in the past when you have completely outstanding drivers coming from F3 as a rookie, you can win in F2 in the first year. That’s something we might see this year, but I don’t want to give a favorite, it’s too difficult to do that. But on the other hand, it’s going to be very open that’s for sure."