Daniel Ricciardo is keeping an eye on young Australian charger Oscar Piastri, the Renault driver admitting to being impressed by the newly-crowned FIA F3 champion's skills.
Melbourne-born Piastri rose through the ranks to make his single-seater debut in 2016 in selected rounds of the Formula 4 UAE Championship.
He subsequently moved up the ladder to race and win in Formula Renault for two seasons before joining Prema Racing to contest this year's FIA Formula 3 Championship which the rookie duly won.
Piastri - who is managed by nine-time Grand Prix winner mark Webber - is a member of the Renault Sport Academy and therefore among the happy few who aspire to race in Formula 1 in the future.
"It's really, really cool to see," said Ricciardo. "I only met Oscar in the off-season. We were both at Enstone together, so I got to meet him.
"As a person he seems like a good kid, head screwed on, pretty low maintenance. I'd say pretty chilled. On track I was certainly impressed with his race craft this year.
"In Monza he made some well-timed moves and didn't seem to get too flustered. I think even after qualifying this weekend, which was a disaster for his standards, he kept cool in the race, and didn't let it get away."
In addition to his burgeoning talent and race craft, Ricciardo noted Piastri's all-important ability to handle pressure.
"So I think he dealt with the pressure relatively well, and he's still young, so also don't expect him to be perfect yet. But I'm really, really happy for him.
"It's cool to see some Aussies back in there. There was a chunk in F3 this year, I think four of them. So awesome that one could win.
"I know Mark has been looking after him a little bit, and I'm sure giving him some guidance. So you can see it's paid off. So I’m very happy for Oscar."
Piastri shared the F3 grid this season with fellow Aussies, Jack Doohan, Alex Peroni and Cala Williams.
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