Feature
Building on their progress: AIX Racing 2026 Preview
Arguably no team ended the 2025 season in better form than AIX Racing, as the Abu Dhabi-based outfit achieved six podiums in the final eight races.
Their Team Principal Morne Reinecke believes AIX are ahead of schedule from where they expected to be, and they are hoping to build on that this year.
Enlisted to help them take that next step is Cian Shields, who is returning for a second year in Formula 2 with the team, and rookie driver Emerson Fittipaldi. So what can we expect from them?
TAKING THAT FORM INTO 2026
AIX started 2025 with a win and ended it standing on the top step of the Yas Marina Feature Race podium for the second consecutive season with Joshua Duerksen.
This is good form, but what they will be eager to do is to avoid the midseason slump they had last year, as from Jeddah to Budapest, they scored points on just two occasions.
While Reinecke explained in Abu Dhabi that the team had an idea of where things went wrong in the middle part of the year, they will no doubt have been working hard on both the cars and the drivers to ensure they get that consistency in 2026.
But even with that, there was a lot to be proud of for AIX in 2025, taking eight podiums – surpassing their previous total of five in 2024 – and achieving 107 points, two more than their total from the prior season.
They finished ninth in the Standings in both seasons, but what is positive is that they closed the gap to the top eight, going from 66 points behind to just 20.
READ MORE
- 2026 FIA Formula 2 Season: Everything you need to know about Calendar, Drivers and Teams
- Doing everything to climb up the order: TRIDENT Season Preview
The goal for 2026 will be to jump up the order, and they have brought a couple of drivers to the grid that they believe are more than capable of helping them do so.
A ROOKIE AND A RETURNING VET
For Shields, in terms of results, it was not the smoothest 2025 campaign, as he went without scoring points. But he and AIX feel it was a lot more positive than the Standings might suggest.
The 20-year-old was close on a couple of occasions, such as in the Imola Feature Race when he finished in P11.
Shields showed good form in post-season testing, surely buoyed by his chance to drive for the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team in the opening practice session in Abu Dhabi.
Reinecke has already made clear that he and his team expect Shields to take a step forward, and the driver is requiring it from himself. The positive is that already in post-season testing, his times looked to have been much improved.
As for Fittipaldi, he conceded already that his 2026 campaign will be a learning year for him, but already there are positive signs for him and AIX.
The rookie has bedded himself well into the team, having spent a lot of time with them at the track in 2025, learning from Duerksen and Shields.
Fittipaldi was happy with how well the team taught him during the test, and that he was able to complete the program, keeping the car on track on all three days of running.
AIX have shown that they can help rookies improve across the year, as they did with Duerksen and Taylor Barnard in 2024 – with both taking race wins that season.
With the early signs being positive for both drivers and team, confidence will be high that they can continue that positive momentum from the end of the season into 2026, and also jump up the order.