Durksen feeling “really, really confident” ahead of Formula 2’s debut Miami weekend
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Formula 2 heads into its first-ever North American weekend this weekend, with drivers taking to the Miami International Autodrome. Drivers will be presented with a unique challenge of taking to a brand new track, with no prior data to rely on, something Joshua Dürksen would be looking to excel at in this weekend.
The Paraguayan driver has showcased continual improvement in his two seasons at AIX Racing, taking victories and finishing in the top 10 of the standings. His charge has been significantly helped by adapting to new tracks on the calendar and banking on historical data to gain more time in race weekends.
While Miami presents that unique challenge for Dürksen, and the other 21 drivers on the Formula 2 grid, the Invicta racer believes he can put his experience and knowledge of the F2 car to good effect, and speed up his process of adapting to the streets of Miami.
“I mean, by being new tracks, of course I don't have the experience on these tracks but that doesn't stop me from preparing well,” Dürksen mentioned, speaking on his preparation for the weekend.
“We have very good simulators, we have very good track models. With my experience in the F2 car we can correlate the simulator model very quickly with the car model.
“So I think we can already get pretty accurate data on these tracks. So I don't feel it's a setback. Of course, it’s different tracks, but I feel we'll be as prepared as we should be for the normal tracks (on the calendar),” he reflected.
While Formula 2 often sees shorter turnarounds between races, Dürksen believed he had more than enough time to get up to speed for the Miami weekend, thanks to the fast-paced nature of F2 race weekends, despite initial challenges of loading the Miami International Autodrome onto the F2 simulators.
“For sure, it was a bit more difficult to maybe get the correct track model (for Miami), because it was not expected for F2 to race here. But, I mean, we get used to the tracks pretty quickly.
“We have very little running in free practice and we go straight to qualifying, so I think we developed this ability of just adapting very quickly, learning very quickly and just beyond speed.
So yes, it was very last-minute, but for us drivers, I think we still had enough time. Maybe for the teams, it was a bit more difficult to organise the logistics, but from our point of view, I think we had a good time to prepare for it,” the Invicta racer concluded.
Although the Miami International Autodrome is a completely new track for the F2 grid, Dürksen believes he would be able to draw parallels between other track layouts on the calendar to aid his preparation for the weekend.
“I think Miami is a track which has some similarities to other tracks. I feel it's an interesting combination of, let's say, Melbourne, Baku and maybe a bit of Jeddah in sector one.
"It's just like the first sector here in Miami is pretty much high-speed corners, fast flowing, and then sector two and three are very tight corners, slow speeds,” Dürksen reflected, bringing up characteristics from other circuits on the calendar.
“Also, the track is a bit narrower, so it just gives you some flashbacks to Baku as well. I think I can mix up experiences from those tracks to make it in this track, and I think it's going to be quite a cool weekend,” the Paraguayan driver concluded, sharing an optimistic outlook ahead.
Dürksen may be into his third season now, but he believes he is very adept when it comes to new tracks and says he isn’t worried about the novelty catching him out. Miami also brings an air of familiarity for the Paraguayan driver, with South Americans making up almost 70% of the city’s inhabitants.
In addition, the city is also home to the Invicta Watch Group, title sponsor of the team in yellow. As such, Dürksen mentioned had taken a liking to Sunshine State very quickly.
“I mean, ever since I arrived in Miami, I just feel like back at home basically. Just a lot of Spanish-speaking people. Very nice weather as well. Just the city. I really like Miami,” Dürksen mentioned, delighted as he walked across to his team’s garage.
“It's the closest to what I could call my home Grand Prix. For sure, it's the home Grand Prix of Invicta. So that makes it even more like my own (home) race.
“But yeah, that's true, and I really feel the support. I've already met some people, not just from Paraguay, but from all of South America, to be honest. And yeah, it just feels like home,” Dürksen concluded, expressing his happiness to be in the city.
Dürksen’s winning start with ‘favourites’ Invicta Racing
In much similarity to his 2025 campaign, Dürksen kicked off a new season by winning the sprint race at Albert Park. It was a confidence-boosting victory, and one the Invicta man believed was “A big push” to his campaign.
Coming into the North American stretch of the season on a winning note only reassured Dürksen and kept him in a strong zone for the weekend ahead.
“For sure, it gives a big, big boost of confidence. Winning the first race, you know, scoring already good points, and it just shows that there's speed, you know, and I know that we have the speed with Invicta.
“So I'm really, really feeling confident and we had a good start and for sure we're aiming to keep going like this and for sure fighting for the championship,” Dürksen mentioned, responding to DIVEBOMB ahead of the race weekend.
Much of that confidence came from the belief of being dubbed as the favourites for the F2 title by team principal James Robinson, something Dürksen backed up, speaking of how the team’s elements were all clicking in unison.
“It's very nice that he (Robinson) says that, but I feel the same as him. I think we have a very strong line-up. Rafa (Câmara) was basically unbeatable in F3; he was super quick.
“He’s adapted very quickly as well to F2. The guys from Invicta have now won the championship twice in a row. For sure, they have had a very strong car, a very strong team all together, and actually combining all of that also with my experience, I think we make a very strong team,” Dürksen mentioned, exuding confidence for the year to come.
Dürksen’s “positive and interesting” Madrid Rookie Test appearance
During the nearly two-month break from F2 action, several young drivers made their way to take part in the Madrid Rookie Test, scheduled after the championship’s maiden Madrid E-Prix in late March.
Among the current F2 racers, it was Kush Maini (Mahindra Racing), Cian Shields (Cupra Kiro) and Dürksen (Citroën Racing) who took to the one-day test, amidst a star-studded field of junior racing talents.
Such opportunities come few and far between, and for the Paraguayan driver, it provided valuable running in motorsport machinery, apart from the enjoyable experience of piloting a Gen3 Evo Formula E car around the Circuito Del Jarama that even left him “amazed”.
“For sure, it was a very good and nice opportunity (the Madrid Rookie Test). I was curious to know how Formula E cars drive, and it was really nice to get some running of any kind during this break,” Dürksen mentioned.
“It’s always very valuable, especially with Formula E, the technology they have really amazed me a lot. I think I can just learn so much stuff from there, which I could apply in different areas.
“It could even be helpful in F2 for sure, maybe even in the new regulations in Formula 1 (in the future), when we are more dependent on the batteries today.
“So it was a really positive and interesting experience, and there was just positives for me. I get some running, I get to drive a new car, I get to learn a lot of stuff and I get to stay on rhythm,” Dürksen summed up, delighted with his appearance during the test.
The Invicta racer and one-time 2026 winner will be in action when F2 takes to the Miami International Autodrome, with qualifying on Friday at 14:30 local time (19:30 BST), while the sprint gets underway at 10:00 local time (15:00 BST) on Saturday, 2 May. The Feature Race gets underway at 12:30 local time (17:30 BST) on Sunday, 3 May.
Comments