Ross Brawn has backed Bruno Senna to shine in Formula 1, and thinks a successful career for the Brazilian would be a boost for the sport.
The nephew of the revered three time champion Ayrton Senna was a candidate for a Brawn drive this year before the team decided it needed Rubens Barrichello's experience for its first season.
Senna had previously tested for Brawn's Honda team before the parent company's exit.
"I was always very impressed with Bruno, I thought he did a good job for us," said Brawn.
"He was certainly the best of the candidates we had.
"We were still not decided if we were going to go down the route of a new driver, so that decision hadn't been made."
Brawn acknowledged that Senna's drive with the new Campos team would put him under pressure to emulate his legendary uncle.
"I think it's a great opportunity for him and I'm looking forward to seeing how well he does," said the champion team boss.
"I think it's important that he does well, because obviously the name is great.
"It would be a shame if he doesn't do well, because of course that carries the name as well."
After missing out on the Brawn seat, Senna opted against a return to GP2 and the offer of a Mercedes drive in the German-based DTM touring car series, and instead contested several sportscar races - including Le Mans - with the French ORECA team.
Brawn hopes that Senna is able to prepare himself properly for his F1 debut given his season away from single-seaters and the limited testing now available.
"Like most of the young, modern drivers, they treat it very seriously, they get themselves fit, they do all the training, they can work on simulators now, which help," said Brawn.
"But he is going to need some mileage, and he's got to find ways of getting race fit over the winter.
"Michael [Schumacher] always used to spend a huge amount of time karting - it tunes the reflexes and tunes the skills."