Why Prema and ART won't run away with the F3 title in 2019

Hitech's Juri Vips - highly rated by Red Bull - took a fifth and a second in the opening weekend which leaves him fifth in the standings. Admittedly, not headline-grabbing statistics.

However, Vips exposes the major talking point and key element of FIA F3 this year, one of the reasons why Prema and ART's dominance in Barcelona may not point to a clear-cut sweep of the drivers' and teams' championships, continuing with this weekend's Paul Ricard races which comprise the second round of the championship.

Before the season, title favourite Leo Pulcini said "if you do qualifying well, you have done 80% of the weekend", a staggering number. But it's difficult to argue with him when you look at a few isolated cases from Barcelona.

Vips especially could only manage 11th in qualifying. He didn't attack on his first run to save tyres, and on the second push lap he hit traffic, after a gear-selection issue had pushed him to the back of the queue.

"Honestly I think we'll be fighting for pole for the rest of the season," Vips told Autosport.

"It should not have been as drastically bad as it was in Barcelona.

"If we had been P3 which is where I think the pace was, then we could have been fighting for victory because the race pace was similar [to the frontrunners]."

"I guess, because the traffic is such an issue you need to take that safety margin and push the first lap as well. I reckon we have the potential to be P3.

"I'm really happy that we've found a clear path of what we need to do with the car for the rest of the season I reckon.

"I'm looking forward to confirming that in Paul Ricard."

His rivals should be particularly worried about this statement, because Vips' race pace was on par with the leaders in race one, driving from 11th to fifth. He and his Hitech Grand Prix team will take a victory, and it's a case of if, not when.

Another driver who demonstrated the importance of qualifying is Jake Hughes. A lack of DRS in qualifying meant he could only manage 29th, even though the only sector without DRS, he was only a tenth off the best time.

It's no surprise that the two standout teams in junior single-seaters - Prema and ART - nailed the first weekend perfectly. Prema doing so without any experience of the GP3 Series of which the current car is based on, and ART surviving losing a number of staff being poached by other teams for its extensive GP3 experience.

Both squads will be a mainstay at the top, both fielding driver line-ups with only one driver each not affiliated to F1 teams.

But rule out the likes of Hughes and Vips at your peril.

While the ART and Prema dominance in Barcelona may have you worried along the lines of 'oh, not these teams winning everything again', it's too soon to rule out some of the rivals on the fringes.

Especially given the issues that befell Hughes and Vips could hit the Premas and ARTs at any time.