A strong start to 2026: AIX Racing Testing Round-Up

AIX Racing enjoyed a positive start to their 2026 campaign, finishing the Barcelona test on top, courtesy of Cian Shields. He finished as fastest on the third and final day of pre-season testing, P1 in the afternoon session.

While table-topping times aren’t always crucial to actual season performance, AIX would have been pleased with their efforts and that is exactly what Team Manager Robert Vavrick said after the chequered flag.

Reflecting on the team’s overall efforts, Vavrick explained what the AIX had worked on and why rookie driver Emerson Fittipaldi also impressed them during the three days.

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“I have to say there’s a lot of work ahead of us still,” he explained. “We have a new rookie - Emerson drove this car just last year in Abu Dhabi in the post-season test and now it's his second experience with it, so there is a potential, we see that, but there’s plenty of work to do.

“Cian is the driver with one year of experience now which should help him and the team this time around. Generally, we're happy. We have completed a lot of tests, we have two full race simulations, quali sim on the final day also, so everything has been good.

“We're happy overall, we also ran the car once through the gravel on day one, but no damage, all okay. The cars are on track and we're doing our jobs. So, we’re looking forward to Melbourne.”

While there are a few weeks between the chequered flag in Barcelona and the green light to signal the start of Practice in Australia, teams are hard at work to put their final preparations in place ahead of Round 1.

Vavrick says that fresh from the test, the atmosphere within AIX is one of positivity, and even with the high workload, the team is raring to get going around Albert Park next month.

“We will prepare the cars here. We have one more day tomorrow to prepare the cars, pack up everything and then head off to Melbourne.

“In general, feeling pretty good ahead of Round 1. Feeling pretty positive, we know there’s work to do, but we are focused on achieving our goals.”