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Joshua D\u00fcrksen joins Invicta Racing off the back of two promising seasons with AIX Racing | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\nJoshua D\u00fcrksen has surpassed expectations since making the ambitious jump from Formula Regional to F2 at the start of 2024, and now he has secured a move to the reigning champions for his third season in the series. Feeder Series caught up with D\u00fcrksen to discuss his career to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Martin Lloyd<\/p>\n
Joshua D\u00fcrksen has not followed a conventional path in his racing journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Paraguayan started karting much later than most of his counterparts in a country with little motorsport heritage. Then, at a time when the FIA ladder has encouraged stepwise movement, he skipped F3 entirely to jump straight into F2 machinery.<\/p>\n
Since he moved to the series with AIX Racing in 2024, D\u00fcrksen has achieved two wins and five other podiums. In 2023, the team had failed to score a single point, yet D\u00fcrksen played a role in elevating them from 11th in the teams\u2019 standings to ninth.<\/p>\n
In 2025, his role has grown further, as he has scored every one of AIX\u2019s 66 points to date. Now, 2024 double champions and current championship leaders Invicta Racing have taken him on for a \u2018golden opportunity\u2019 to challenge for the title in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible opportunity to be racing with the championship-leading team and just great people,\u201d D\u00fcrksen told Feeder Series. \u201cFor sure they have a great car because they have shown it these last two years minimum that they are always quick in every track they go.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd [it\u2019s] just an amazing opportunity for myself, to be honest. I think it\u2019s the biggest opportunity for me to shine in Formula 2 and also to knock some doors in F1, you know, to maybe have some chances in F1. For that, it\u2019s also always great to then be on the top team. [I\u2019m] extremely happy to start collaborating with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua D\u00fcrksen joins Invicta Racing off the back of two promising seasons with AIX Racing | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
D\u00fcrksen will now have the chance to compete for a team that has scored points in 48 of the 51 races since the start of 2024, with consistency the backbone of their frontrunning performances. By contrast, AIX, formerly PHM Racing, have scored in 20 of their last 51 starts, 17 of those with D\u00fcrksen.<\/p>\n
Despite his clear upward trajectory in his move to Invicta, D\u00fcrksen said he was sad to be leaving AIX.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have spent so much time together on so many lows, also on so many highs,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I joined the team, of course, the team didn\u2019t have their best season \u2013 they were having quite tough times. And last year, when we started to work together, somehow everything was coming together and we were starting to have great results, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of us were underdogs and I think we surprised the paddocks. I think this made us also even connect a lot more, so for sure, it\u2019s going to hurt because I feel like they\u2019re family for me. It\u2019s really amazing, the connection we have, the relationships we have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I told them that I would move to Invicta, they had a completely different reaction than what I thought they would have. I thought, \u2018Okay, they\u2019re going to be a bit sad because I\u2019m leaving.\u2019 But they were actually really happy for me. They were like, \u2018Wow, man, congrats, you deserve this, it\u2019s an amazing opportunity, I\u2019m so happy for you.\u2019 I was completely shocked. I was like, \u2018Wow\u2019, and I think that\u2019s where we saw how connected we are, and how we\u2019re just happy for the other, you know, if the other has an amazing opportunity and uses it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also always happy when the mechanics or the engineers maybe get another opportunity that arises. It has been just amazing. So for sure, it will not be easy to leave AIX because, yes, they gave me the opportunity to be racing in Formula 2. This opportunity with Invicta is also thanks to them because they gave me this chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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D\u00fcrksen\u2019s AIX Racing team and personal entourage celebrate his sprint race win in Melbourne | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
D\u00fcrksen has surprised doubters with his F2 performances, which is perhaps symbolic of his career to date. He started watching F1 in the early 2010s and began karting soon after, but he was already 11 by that point. As D\u00fcrksen himself recognises, most of his current competitors started karting much earlier than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That means that he has effectively been playing catch-up throughout his racing career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI did only three years of go-karting and 90 per cent of these races were local, so I was just doing the national championship,\u201d he explained. \u201cInternationally, I have done only maybe three go-kart races. So it\u2019s nothing. And from there, jumping to Formula 4, was a massive step, big step. And I knew that I had this, let\u2019s say, disadvantage of not having the track time and the experience that the others have with international races and high-level competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I gave my best to recover this as quickly as possible, to learn as quickly as possible and as much as possible because I knew that the talent is really high. So I needed to be on my game as well. I was doing my maximum effort, and nowadays, I think I\u2019m quite there on the same level as [those who started karting earlier].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he left Paraguay to pursue a racing career, D\u00fcrksen had to adjust quickly. His first car championship was F4 UAE in 2019, in which he finished second out of nine full-time competitors with M\u00fccke Motorsport. A tougher test awaited in the European season, when D\u00fcrksen competed in Italian F4 with M\u00fccke and finished eighth. He combined this with a season in ADAC F4 in which he finished 11th.<\/p>\n
For D\u00fcrksen, the differences between Europe and South America were just as big off the track as on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to move to Europe, be alone and surround myself with people around 35 years old, 40 years old. As a 15-year-old kid, it\u2019s quite a big jump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me a bit of adaptation to manage the first year. It was quite tough because I was entering the real motorsport world. And what I\u2019m not used to is that, in the motorsport world, people are straight. They tell you what they think. They tell you straight away what their opinion is. In Paraguay, it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Paraguay, we\u2019re all very friendly, very kind. We don\u2019t like to say this stuff straight away. We try to make it a bit softer. And this was something big for me. And then I always thought that people are just angry at me all the time, you know, \u2018What\u2019s going on?!\u2019 But with time, I understood it\u2019s just the way they work.\u201d<\/p>\n
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D\u00fcrksen had to adapt to a different culture in Europe when he moved from karting to car racing | Credit: Gruppe C Photography<\/p>\n
For South American racers who move to the European scene as teenagers, the cultural differences only add to the difficulties of moving thousands of miles away from home and families. It was a big adjustment for D\u00fcrksen, who was 15 when he left Paraguay. But as he settled into living in Germany, the home of his ancestors, the culture became a positive influence.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I understand that,\u201d D\u00fcrksen added. \u201cIt\u2019s okay. And actually, I like it now because I need that feedback to be able to improve. But in the first year, it was totally different for me. So it took a lot of adaptation just to change my everyday life [from] being with friends and family to being alone and training and just focusing on racing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
D\u00fcrksen also faced difficulties on track. He continued in Italian F4 and ADAC F4 in 2020 and 2021, finishing sixth in the German series his first year and occupying the same position in Italian F4 the following year. That result preceded a step up to FR Europe with Arden in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first season in the series commonly called FRECA, D\u00fcrksen finished 14th, finishing 11 points behind one teammate, Eduardo Barrichello, and 37 ahead of the other, Noel L\u00e9on. D\u00fcrksen had hoped to build upon that foundation when he returned to the series with Arden in 2023, but he suffered his most difficult season to date, finishing 19th in the standings with just 26 points and a sole podium in race two at Spa.<\/p>\n
He credits the experience with building his character ahead of a surprise step up to F2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFRECA was the toughest time of my whole career,\u201d D\u00fcrksen said. \u201cIt was not easy at all. I was at some points extremely lost, no motivation. I was like, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019 If I\u2019m just being in the back, I\u2019m doing everything, I don\u2019t know what else I can do. I was doubting myself. I was like, \u2018Am I really not driving well?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people won\u2019t understand this, but after everything I have gone through, I understand it perfectly. But basically, these two tough seasons in FRECA made me ready for Formula 2. If I wouldn\u2019t have these two tough seasons, I\u2019m quite sure I would not be as ready as I am right now to be racing Formula 2. So actually, of course, the results are not great. For me, they are horrible. But the difficult moments have made me grow so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
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D\u00fcrksen speaks with AIX Racing team manager Bob Vav\u0159\u00edk | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
D\u00fcrksen\u2019s rise to the series directly below F1 also means that he has become incredibly popular in his home country. There are positive and negative impacts of the fame, the Asunci\u00f3n native told Feeder Series, but above all, he knows how valuable mementos are for his fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with the tough FRECA season, I was slowly getting recognised through Paraguay, but the big boom was when I announced that I\u2019m going to Formula 2. This was a game changer,\u201d he said. \u201cNowadays, every time I go to a public space, somebody recognises me, somebody asks me for pictures. It\u2019s very cool. It\u2019s very interesting because the popularity has grown a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m slowly starting to get used to it. It\u2019s really great because it just reminds me every single day, every time somebody asks me for a picture, \u2018Wow, the support is there. They\u2019re a fan of what I\u2019m doing,\u2019 and it\u2019s just a privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes maybe it\u2019s a bit too much. Sometimes you want just to relax and to not be in public. But at some other points, I\u2019m like, man, I should see it as something positive because they\u2019re supporting, they\u2019re happy for me. I try to see the good thing of this as well and of course give everybody the opportunity then to also have a picture because if I see somebody that I admire, I would go crazy. I also would like to have a picture. Then I would try to think of the little me in the past and I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, I would die for a picture.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As the country\u2019s first prominent single-seater racer and one of its leading athletes, he often shows his patriotism whenever he achieves a strong result by bringing the horizontal tricolour of the national flag onto the podium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763578091_838_image-114.jpeg\")
Celebrating with the Paraguayan flag has become a tradition for D\u00fcrksen | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just part of my personality,\u201d he says of his celebrations. \u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s also a question that I don\u2019t understand about the other guys. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s the reason behind it, but I\u2019m like, guys, we\u2019re racing Formula 2. We\u2019re one step away from Formula 1. We don\u2019t know how long we\u2019re going to race here. If we live tomorrow, if we will have another podium, if we will stop racing. I mean, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He brought out the red, white and blue of Paraguay in both races at Monza in September, finishing second in Saturday\u2019s sprint and third in Sunday\u2019s feature race for his best F2 weekend of the season so far. D\u00fcrksen said he was surprised that drivers don\u2019t celebrate podiums more vigorously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to enjoy this moment. It\u2019s special, it\u2019s unique, it\u2019s not coming back. What\u2019s the point of not being happy of a podium or being, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m P2\u2019? A lot of other drivers would love to be P2 in this race right now. So I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s something with the ego, saying \u2018I only want to win\u2019, I\u2019m not sure, but it\u2019s always a question I have. In my opinion\u2026 we have to be very grateful because we have the privilege of racing. Many even dream about racing at least go-karting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we\u2019re racing Formula 2, we\u2019re travelling, we know so many countries, know so many cultures, so many stuff. It\u2019s unique. You have to enjoy this because you\u2019re not guaranteed that you\u2019ll live tomorrow. You\u2019re not guaranteed that you will experience this again.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763578091_605_image-115.jpeg\")
Fans hold D\u00fcrksen\u2019s Paraguayan flag in the Melbourne grandstands | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency<\/p>\n
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