AIX Racing 2025 Season Review: Better than expected and ahead of schedule

AIX Racing Team Principal Morne Reinecke was very impressed by his team’s performance in 2025, revealing that they are ahead of where he thought they would be by at this point.

The Dubai-based outfit finished ninth in the Teams’ Standings with 107 points, two more than they had in 2024.

However, with Joshua Duerksen, they achieved two victories and eight podiums – with only Invicta Racing, Hitech TGR, Campos Racing and DAMS Lucas Oil achieving more than them.

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But even with a slight slump in results – a spell in which they finished in the points just twice between Jeddah and Budapest – Reinecke is happy with how the year went.

“Overall really good,” he said when asked for his assessment of 2025. “It was better than we expected to be fair. Josh did really well, we had a bit of a midseason slump, but he pulled himself back together really well, and obviously a development year for Cian.

“So all round really happy. From a benchmark schedule, we are ahead of schedule from when we bought the team to now, so overall happy.”

When asked about the mid-season, Reinecke said there were a lot of external factors that affected them, believing that it was not always due to a lack of performance.

“Look the car was the same,” said Reinecke. “Fundamentally, there were small developments over the year, but it's also important to understand that the drivers are human beings.

“So I put it down to external factors that always seemed to play a role. Who knows what it was, but the car pretty much remained the same.”

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But Duerksen especially was able to bounce back from the dip in form, achieving six podiums in the last four rounds, including winning the season-ending Yas Marina Feature Race.

While Reinecke was happy about the results, he says his engineers and mechanics would have been slightly happier, as it means they were on the right track with the car.

“I think the boys were probably happier than I was,” said Reinecke. “It means the car is good. We always knew Josh was good, so if the car is good, Josh is good and if you can string together results, then happy days.”

Straight after their victory in Abu Dhabi, focus quickly shifted to 2026, with the post-season test their first chance to field new driver Emerson Fittipaldi Jr.

The Brazilian will be racing alongside Cian Shields, who Reinecke says has already shown signs of taking the next step in his development.

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“We do expect a step from Cian next year, but I think he expects a step from himself,” he said. “They are putting in a lot of work, a lot of time, there are a lot of guys in the garage working hard with him to try and find time.

“Already when you look at the delta, it's a lot better. Next year is going to be good for us. We have Emmo Fittipaldi, which is really exciting, and to see him and Cian work together already just at the post-season test is really good.

“We will see, but he is fitting in well with the team and it's already really early. So we will see how it goes with the car but so far so good.”