James Robinson heaps praise on Invicta drivers after Monza 1-2

Invicta Racing enjoyed one of their finest weekends in FIA Formula 2, taking a 1-2 in Qualifying and converting that into Feature Race success on Sunday.

Joshua Duerksen led home teammate Rafael Câmara, a record-equaling win for the Paraguayan, as he achieved his eighth victory in the Championship.

Speaking in the paddock afterwards, Invicta Racing Team Principal James Robinson was effusive in his praise for both drivers, paying tribute to Duerksen in particular after his impressive exploits around Monza.

"I’m feeling ecstatic,” he admitted. “It was a great job by the whole team today. I'm really, really happy for Joshua. He executed the race perfectly, he made a great start. He made the call to box on Lap 6, which was an aggressive call, especially with the risk of Safety Cars and obviously the potential for the overcut here.

“But he nailed the outlap and then controlled the race and was never really challenged. A massive credit as well to Rafa, who drove a very sensible race behind, didn't make any stupid moves, made the best race for the championship.

“But above all, I'm really happy for the team, for all the guys here who worked so, so hard. The engineering group, who always work well as a team, and the mechanic group as well, we always work as a team, we celebrate both sides of the garage.

“To be able to celebrate the whole team as one is really special, because you don't get that very often in this job. So often in this world, one side of the garage is upset, you can't both have a great race normally. It's a very unique position to be in and I couldn't be happier.

Expanding on Duerksen’s improved form, Robinson explained that the Mercedes Development Driver took a while to adjust to his new team in 2026, but was now firing on all cylinders.

He added that the Paraguayan driver’s ability and mindset in the races had been particularly impressive, with his skillset on full display at Monza across the weekend.

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• FEATURE RACE: Duerksen goes back-to-back and sweeps Monza weekend

"I think this season has been a tough one. But this weekend, he's just shown exactly what he's all about. It took him a while to find his groove in the team. And I would say that cost him a lot of points early on in the championship. Just a few silly mistakes here and there, he really struggled to pull together an entire weekend.

“It's funny, that's what I said actually at the start of the weekend in the TV interview. And then he then goes and puts together the perfect weekend really. Only blemish was not taking pole position by half a tenth.

“So, his performance yesterday was arguably even more impressive than his performance today. But he's an incredibly intelligent driver. His understanding of the car is outstanding, and his ability to think strategically mid-race is really, really impressive.”

Looking ahead to Madrid, the Invicta team boss says that the team is confident of rolling their good form on into Spain, but they won’t be looking at any title fight just yet.

The British outfit was able to close the gap down to leaders Campos Racing in the Teams’ Standings at Monza, with the gap down to 47 points.

Despite the positive weekend, Robinson says the team will be focused inward on continuing their form rather than eyeing up another big gain on the Championship leading team.

"Well, we never look at the points table. We only look at the points table at the end of the season. So, I have no idea what the gap is to Campos in the championship, but we just take every race as we can and do the best job. And if by the end of the season we can win both championships, that would be great.

“But I know that the gap to Campos is very big. So, we're not really looking at that at all. Obviously, Rafa is quite close now to solid in the Drivers’, I think that's much closer than the Teams’.

“But, we'll just keep doing the best we can each weekend, and not think about everybody else. We just think about what we do, control the controllables and what's in front of us. If we do that, then we can have a good weekend.”