Starting off at the top: Invicta Racing Testing Round-Up

It was a particularly good pre-season test for reigning Teams’ Champions Invicta Racing. The Norfolk-based outfit swept Day 2 with the fastest times in the morning and afternoon sessions, before Rafael Câmara set the quickest lap of the test on the opening segment of Day 3.

So with expectations high, Team Principal James Robinson gave his thoughts in the aftermath of how his team had done, and just what the team were most pleased with leaving Barcelona.

“It's been a really good test for us, both drivers have fitted in seamlessly,” he explained. “We said at the end of Abu Dhabi that if we compared it to 12 months ago, it was very much a reset.

“I would say this feels like very much like we've picked up from where we left off after Abu Dhabi.”

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The post-season Abu Dhabi test was of course the first time new recruits Câmara and Joshua Duerksen got to drive the Invicta F2 car, and both arrive at the team with a lot of promise.

The former earned the FIA Formula 3 Drivers’ Championship in his rookie campaign last year, while Duerksen has taken steps forward in both of his F2 seasons to date.

Robinson says that both drivers have already impressed him at this very early stage in the 2026 season.

“Rafael has come in and shown a level of adaptability to the car that does not correspond to his actual level of experience. He's done quite a lot of work between Abu Dhabi and now and it's really showing.

“Joshua - he comes with a lot more experience from his two years at AIX and he brings a great amount of knowledge, technical expertise as to how the car works, how to set the car up, things like that.

“But then there's also some difficulties with that because he's obviously predisposed to ideas having driven a car with another team which may have slightly different setup philosophy than us, so he's also had to unlearn a few things.

“Generally speaking, his feedback has been phenomenal. The way he's working with the engineers is really good and what's really pleasing from my point of view is to see how well the drivers are working together.

“I think one of the real secrets to our success last year was how well Leo and Roman collaborated and we've already seen that to a great degree between both Rafa and Joshua. So, we’re pretty happy, still some work to be done between now and Melbourne, but I feel like we're in a good place.”

While topping the leaderboard was an encouraging sign, Robinson downplayed reading into the headline times too much, stating that it was more about the work behind-the-scenes that mattered.

He highlighted the different run plans for all of the teams as a key factor in who was fast and when, but that driver feedback and internal confidence were more important heading into Round 1 in Melbourne.

“If we were P21 and P22, I would be saying exactly the same thing. On Day 2, Joshua was the only person running his run plan.

“All 21 other cars, were on a completely different run plan, doing like different runs. I think only two drivers set their best lap time that afternoon, him and Shields.

“So, you can't really read anything into that at all, but we’re taking much more confidence from what we see behind the scenes in terms of how well the drivers are working with the engineers, how well they're working with the team, the mechanics, and most importantly, how well they're working with each other.”