David Croft hailed Oscar Piastri as a "champion in the making" after impressing despite a difficult start to life as a Formula 1 racer.
Piastri scored his first F1 points at his home Grand Prix in Australia earlier this month, finishing eighth after qualifying 16th a day earlier. The Melbourne native will have been grateful for that success given the terrible luck he had endured in his first two races.
An electrical issue in Bahrain meant he did not finish that race and took the dubious honour of becoming the first driver this season to retire. And damage sustained to his front wing on the first lap of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix hampered both his chances and also adversely affected McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
Despite that lack of fortune, the work Piastri has done has caught the eye of Croft, who feels the Aussie is "the real deal". Even amid McLaren's struggles this season, Sky Sports' lead commentator has seen enough to know the racer has plenty of fight within him.
"His debut lasted only 13 laps because the car broke down on him, but I think we saw in Jeddah some real fight and some real spirit from Piastri," Croft told Australian broadcaster SEN. And he can only see the Formula 2 champion getting better and potentially beating Norris to silverware.
Croft added: "As a human being I think he is fantastic, he's really approachable, very chatty – a really easy going guy. As a racing driver, he is absolutely the real deal. Like Charles Leclerc and George Russell, he won the two main feeder systems in F3 and F2 in consecutive years.
"He will only get better. He has really impressed the McLaren team in the way he has knuckled down, the way he's learnt, the way he's adapted to the strains and stresses of being an F1 driver. In the years to come we will see some fine performances from this man. He looks a champion in the making to be honest and has done for some time now."
Mark Webber has been a guiding hand for Piastri as his manager and knows a thing or two about what it takes to compete in F1 himself. The former Red Bull racer has also recognised the young Aussie's talent and praised his performance in Australia.
He told the F1 Nation podcast: "The rollercoaster is real, of course it's real, you want to be there for the good and the bad moments for him – I have to be – but Oscar's rollercoaster mentally... his emotional regulation is quite extraordinary."
Webber, himself a of nine F1 races in 215 starts, went on to express his belief that Piastri will "destroy" his trophy cabinet and become a resounding success in the premier single-seater category.
