Ask anyone who's worked with Oscar Piastri to describe him, and the one word that always crops up is 'calm'.

It was amongst the first things that Oscar's new race engineer Tom Stallard noted during his initial tests, and it was referenced several times during a chat with the Australian's Formula 2 and Formula 3 Team Principal, René Rosin.

Rosin is the Team Principal at PREMA Racing, one of the most successful teams in junior formula history. The Italian squad possess a list of alums to envy any Formula 1 team, with the likes of Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Mick Schumacher, Zhou Guanyu and Lance Stroll, amongst others, all driving for them at some point during their climb up the junior ladder.

Like at McLaren, racing is now year-long for PREMA and Rosin. When we speak, he is watching Formula Regional Middle East and has just finished viewing Formula 4 UAE, all whilst working at PREMA's Vicenza-based factory in Italy.

Rosin was first introduced to Oscar midway through the then 18-year-old's title-winning Formula Renault Eurocup campaign, and offered him a test with PREMA's F3 team, who at the time were leading the championship through Robert Shwartzman.

"He came to the office with his entourage, and we had a small talk," Rosin recalls. "I told him I was interested in signing the best drivers from Formula Renault for our Formula 3 team. I got a recommendation from his Formula Renault team R-ace GP, and we decided to test together.

"Everything in the test went well, right from the beginning. He was very calm and very reflective right from the start. His former team told us that he wants to understand everything he is doing, and we saw that.

"He was a normal guy with his feet on the ground, and he knew that he had a long road ahead of him, but from the first test, we could see that he had quite a bit of potential. He then demonstrated that in both Formula 3 and then Formula 2."

First linking up with the team at 2019 post-season testing, Oscar impressed sufficiently to earn a contract for the 2020 campaign but saw his debut postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The season didn't get underway until July and spanned just 12 weeks, which was 18 races and nine rounds long. COVID restrictions saw Oscar all but live with the team for that period and they got to know each other well.

"Travelling was restricted in 2020, and all of the races were back-to-back, so we spent a lot of time together." Rosin continued, “You weren't able to travel, even to the UK, so he spent a lot of time at the factory in Italy to avoid any restriction concerns.

"Interacting with him is very easy. He integrated really well with everyone, from management to the mechanics, and that helped a lot because everybody was working towards the same goal."

Oscar clinched the Formula 3 title during a tense-season finale, entering the final race level on points with Logan Sargeant and just nine ahead of Théo Pourchaire. Oscar lined up 11th but fought to seventh at the flag. With Sargeant retiring from the race and Pouchaire in third, he'd done exactly what was necessary, expertly assessing the risk versus the reward of each overtake.

He clinched the title in F3 despite never taking pole – he qualified in the top three just twice but almost always found a way to fight up to the front, winning twice and taking two podiums. He only finished outside of the points three times, and two of those were DNFs.

It was a different story in F2, where he took five successive poles from the eight-round campaign, having spent the majority of pre-season testing working on his one-lap pace. He became a regular on the front row and won the title with two races to spare.

"He exploded in Formula 2," Rosin continued. "The poles he took in Silverstone, Monza, Sochi, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi were all really amazing. He is one of the best drivers to pass through Formula 2.

"Our teams in 2020 and 2021 with Oscar reminded me of the years when we had Charles [Leclerc], Antonio [Giovinazzi] and Pierre [Gasly] as teammates. Everyone was pushing hard to reach our targets, and we ended up winning the teams' and drivers' championships in both seasons, which was amazing."

Gearing up to make his F1 debut in Bahrain on 3-5 March, Oscar forms one-half of the youngest driver line-up on the grid alongside 23-year-old Lando. Although the adjustment will take time, Rosin doesn't believe it will phase him.

"There will be a learning process for him because everything is new," Rosin said. "But he is one of the best teammates that you can have beside you. He is young and motivated, and I think he will adapt to Formula 1. He handles pressure very well - or at least he makes it look like he does. He is very calm, very mature, and always dealt with any pressure well.

"He never stops, he always wants perfection, and always wants to maximise what he can do. This is one of his strongest characteristics. And in a competitive environment, like Formula 1, he will want to maximise everything and perfect every area of his racing."

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