Duerksen on Invicta Racing move and 2026 season: ‘Right place at the right time’

Joshua Duerksen is preparing for year three in FIA Formula 2, and for the first time, he’ll be with a new team in reigning Teams’ Champions Invicta Racing.

The Paraguayan driver secured the final race win of 2025 and enters the new season full of optimism after showing bursts of potential across his two seasons in F2 already.

Ahead of the 2026 campaign, he sat down to talk about his move to Invicta and why he feels that he’s in the right place at the right time going into the new campaign.

“I'm super excited. It feels like my first year in F2 in terms of the excitement levels. Invicta is the best team in the F2 Championship and I'm just super excited to be working with them.

“So far things have been really good, to be honest. It’s super interesting to see their point of view of how they work, of how they handle things, how they think and just their way of working is just super, super nice.

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“We're having fun together and I felt part of their family straight away. So it was a very good start with the team and I’m enjoying the work with them.”

Duerksen has been a presence in the top positions through his time in F2, surprising many in his 2024 rookie season and then impressing once more as he followed that up by doubling his podium count to eight in 2025.

The Invicta driver says he feels he’s developed as a driver by a vast amount since joining the Championship.

“I've grown a lot during these two years. It was also my most enjoyable years of racing because it's F2, it's where just one step away from F1, and racing with them at the same racetracks.

“F2 cars are, of course, quick. And the working level here is just very high. It's very professional. I enjoy this kind of environment and during these two years, I've just had so much fun. And I think this also helped me to learn even more because it was just so fun for me to just keep developing and progressing and learning.

“We’ve been through a lot of stuff, good moments, bad moments. But at the end of the day, I have grown a lot, and I see myself as being much stronger, much more focused and mature compared to when I jumped into F2.”

His results in F2 have drawn attention from Mercedes as Duerksen joined the team as a Development Driver for 2026.

He says it’s important recognition of his improvements as a driver and that there was no better place to be heading into the new year.

“When I was racing go-karts, I've dreamed of F1, but I've never thought it would be really happening. Right now, I have my first foot into the F1 world. For sure, I want to be racing in the Championship full time.

“But this is, I think, a good first step just to get the first feeling of how an F1 team works and just to have this experience, this knowledge, I think all the lessons I will learn will also help me for F2. So really, it's just a big dream come true.

“And doing it with Mercedes, I think there's no better choice than that. So I'm just super happy to be working with them also this year.”

Reflecting on the upcoming season, the Paraguayan driver says that adaptability will be crucial in the early phase of the year, before he then looks to maximise everything in his control for what he hopes will be his best F2 season yet.

“The most important for me is just to adapt very quickly to the car and maximise everything I have for myself.

“To not leave any little drop of performance, just maximise everything I can do the best I can. Then I can say I've done my best.”