Didn't Rosset finish runner-up to Sospiri in F3000? Presumably there was something exceptionally poor about the quality of the field that allowed that to happen. Then again, Piquet Jr. was a challenger to Hamilton in GP2 but one of the worst F1 drivers since the turn of the millenium.
The field was possibly a little below average, but not dreadfully so. Marc Goossens, Kenny Brack and Allan McNish weren't exactly slowcoaches.