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Breakthrough wins and leaning on the car: How I Race with Joshua Duerksen
A hugely successful rookie campaign for Joshua Duerksen did more than just impress the paddock, as it fuelled his and AIX Racing’s confidence coming into 2025.
The Paraguayan detailed his journey to Formula 2 race winner in terms of how his style has evolved, including the biggest lessons he’s learned along the way and the crucial moments along the way.
“My driving style changes depending on if it’s qualifying or a race. In a race it’s quite a smooth style. It has a lot to do with feeling out the car and squeezing everything out of it but in a controlled manner.
“I feel I have a pretty smooth driving style and a really good feel with the car which allows myself to adapt lap by lap to whatever the car needs in order to be driven quickly.
“In the races, in terms of overtaking and defending, I’m quite aggressive. I think that’s what you need in order to be fighting for the top positions in F2.
“My style has a good feel with the car and I’m aggressive when I need to be going wheel-to-wheel.
“I think it’s also a positive aspect of my style that it allows me to adapt quickly to whichever car I’m driving. So it was a big jump for me to go up to F2, but I think I adapted very quickly.
“I felt very comfortable after day one in the car and started to understand how the car wanted to be driven. So it was a big step, but I think I had a good understanding quickly.
“I’m on the oversteer side of things. I really hate understeer. It’s the worst feeling a driver can have, I think. If it’s oversteer or understeer, I prefer oversteer. It’s more tricky to drive but it’s just quicker overall.
“You can still control it and do something about it whereas with understeer, you can’t really do much apart from slow down more and try and get the car rotated. So overall, you’ll be losing laptime.
“With oversteer, it’s a bit different. You can control it a bit more and lose less laptime. In qualifying you want that rotation but with a strong rear. It’s not like I’m ice drifting around the whole track, because that’s obviously not quick. But if you gave me the choice, I’d always pick oversteer.
“Every time I look back at an old video of myself, I just think, ‘wow, how did I drive like that?’ It just comes with more experience and more mileage, your driving always gets better.
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“There were points, especially in my Formula 4 times, I think there’s so many things you could be doing better, but in the moment, you don’t realise because you’re still learning. You have to do mistakes to learn, so there were many times I thought I could have been a lot better.
“I think it started with my very first win in German Formula 4, it was in Nürburgring. I think it really was a mega breakthrough moment for me.
“Hockenheim was a really tough race, the driving was on the limit and with Gabriele Minì behind me, it was really tough. It was qualifying laps in a row, trying to do no mistakes with a little bit of a broken car. And that was an amazing experience, but I think my step started the race before at Nürburgring.
“Hockenheim was the confirmation where I knew it wasn’t a coincidence. I realised I had the speed and the talent, I just need to put it all together.
“Another breakthrough moment was my first podium in Formula 2 in Imola. I was coming off a tough season in FRECA, and people weren’t expecting a lot from me.
“To be on the podium, against all the odds, I did a podium in a new car in a new Championship with a team that also had a tough year the season before.
“To come and do a podium in Round 4, it was a really big statement for me. It’s a high level and I got a podium in my rookie season with a team that struggled the year before. It gave me a lot of confidence and was a moment where I was like ‘OK, I can do this’.
“That was confirmed later in the year with the win in Baku and podium in Monza, and then the race win in Abu Dhabi. Those were great achievements and maybe breakthrough moments.
“Maybe not as much of an emotional impact as Imola, but confirmation to myself that I can do this. It really helps you to keep going.
“It gives me confidence that what the team and I are doing is working and that we’re able to do it. So we just have to keep working as we are, and more results will come. It’s a boost in confidence, motivation and energy.”