Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
When Joshua Duerksen lines up on the F2 grid in March he will carry more than just the colours of his home country Paraguay. He will be single-handedly representing the South American nation at this level of racing
Fresh from his solid and quietly impressive performance in post-season testing, Duerksen explains to Formula Scout how the surprising step up from Formula Regional to Formula 2 for 2024 came about and what it means for racing in Paraguay.
“For all of us it’s really special because I have the privilege to be the first Paraguayan to move to F2 and right now being basically the only Paraguayan driver racing in single-seaters. There’s never been a Paraguayan driver in Formula 1,” he says.
In fact, Duerksen is one of just a handful of Paraguayans to have ever competed in single-seaters internationally. His country has had to wait almost 28 years for a driver to race in the second tier, following Roque Aranda and Danny Candia’s appearances in Indy Nxt in 1996.
“It’s just crazy,” Duerksen acknowledges. “The Paraguayan people just support so much, which is, of course, incredible.”
“The support just gives you extra motivation, and you have a whole country behind you, supporting you, it’s just great. Whatever happens, they’re always going to be there to support you and that’s something I never imagined and it’s just the best thing you can have as a driver.”
The Paraguayan flag featured on the shark fin of the PHM Racing-run car he drove in F2’s Abu Dhabi post-season test, and for the last two years adding blue to Arden’s traditional red-and-white colour scheme meant “the whole FRegional European Championship car was with the Paraguayan flag; I just love to take the flag everywhere I am, I have it also on my helmet”.
The reaction back home to news he would be stepping up to F2 was phenomenal, he says, with “easily 90-95% positive comments”. And the interest from the media and fans back home has been intense: “The last time I was home we were literally having two to three interviews every day for a month.”
Photo: FRECA
Even Paraguay’s president Santiago Pena stopped off at F2 testing on the way to COP 28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in neighbouring Dubai, to visit his young countryman.
“To have the president there with me in the F2 was something so special because I could finally share with him what I’m doing and he could see it, he could feel it, he could live it. It was just such a special moment. I will never forget it, his face and how he enjoyed it.”
Pena himself said that seeing Duerksen at the higher levels of motorsport “makes us understand that there are no limits to what Paraguayans can do, when we find the opportunity”.
Did the head of state give Duerksen any words of encouragement? “He told me ‘no worries, it’s a positive pressure, I’m here to support you’. I don’t think I can have a better support than this, from all the people and from the president, it’s just amazing.”
The president added: “Keep pushing like this, just keep doing it like you’re doing and be the best example you can be. A lot of Paraguayan people are looking at you. They want to be like you. So really use this to encourage the Paraguayan people.”
Duerksen says “that’s what I want to do”, to “show the people that Paraguay can do big things and be on the international level” and “use this platform to motivate the Paraguayan people to keep pushing”.
The 20-year-old is bypassing FIA Formula 3 with his step up to F2 (although he made the podium when cameoing in the F3-level Euroformula championship in 2021), a move that FREC and FRegional Middle East champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli is also making and with a similar amount of attention on him (mostly from the racing world rather than his home country Italy).
Duerksen has five seasons of racing experience under his belt, having spent three years in Formula 4 with Mucke Motorsport, racing in Italy, Germany and the United Arab Emirates and taking 11 wins. But he only made the podium once in his two FREC campaigns, and took a podium finish from his two weekends in FRME with Hyderabad Blackbirds by MP last year.
Photo: FRME
The “original plan was to do the FIA F3, like almost every other driver would do,” he says. “But then, in September, I think, we got this offer [for F2], which was really tempting, really interesting.”
With the F2 offer in his pocket, Duerksen joined PHM for the third post-season F3 test at Imola and that “just helped both of us to know each other a bit better and to know what we wanted to do”.
At that point, Duerksen and his management were still considering both options. “There was nothing really clear yet in that moment, so I think that test helped us to get to know each other and from then on to decide what to do for the future.”
The more he thought about it, however, the clearer the preference for F2 became. And with the introduction of the new Dallara F2 2024 chassis for this season, the timing was perfect.
“If we want to jump to F2, this is going to be the perfect moment because it’s a new car for everyone, so we may have a bit more of a chance in that situation. We said, ‘yeah, we have to take it’. You don’t get a unique chance to drive an F2 car every day, so we had to go for it.”
Duerksen reveals he’s “been working now for two years” with PHM’s sporting director Roland Rehfeld.
“Me and Roland, we know each other pretty well, he knows what I’m capable of, and he always followed me as well in FREC. He knows what happens behind the scenes. He saw how I was growing both as a person [and] as a driver, and I think that helped as well.”
It is clear from Duerksen’s reaction that he already feels at home with PHM. “I really love the team. I love how they work. I think they have great potential. The team knows what I can do, and I think they saw my sort of potential.”
Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency
Although a number of his former mechanics and engineers migrated to PHM when Mucke withdrew from single-seaters, the crew on his F2 car are all new faces. But Duerksen has already established an immediate bond with the team, which will be bringing its F2 and F3 operations in-house for 2024, following a season co-operating with Charouz Racing System.
“It’s a really, really good team. Really interesting, really good people, they have a lot of potential. I know how the Germans work. They know me, so we know how to work together. We believe in that team and if we work together like we want to I think we can achieve some good results.”
Duerksen used the three days of F2 testing to gain an understanding of the outgoing car and PHM’s way of working. His eyes light up with excitement as soon as the conversation turns to his first impressions of the Dallara F2 2018.
“The whole experience in F2 is just incredible. I loved every lap of it. Just going out of the pitlane. Knowing I’m driving an F2 car was just amazing – the noise, the G-forces, the acceleration, the grip. Everything was just perfect. I love fast cars, and this is definitely one fast car,” he bubbles, like a child for whom Christmas has come early.
“I really enjoyed these three days a lot, to be there and driving an F2 car is not something you can do every day, so I wanted to enjoy every second of it and improve as quickly as possible to be on the pace.”
He took his time to build confidence and get acquainted with the superior performance compared to Tatuus’s FRegional car, and was 14th fastest on single-lap pace. His average ‘race pace’ on long runs looked very impressive, being fifth fastest in the field, but as being fast over one lap is crucial in F2’s frenetic qualifying sessions that’s the key area he has to develop.
“The hardest thing to get used to? I think a bit of the quali pace. To get the tyres in the perfect temperature window for the quali lap; at least to get the procedures right especially if you have traffic in front or some cars pushing behind [which] affects your warm-up procedure.
Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
“I think that was maybe something which I was not used to from FREC, [where you] basically just go out, warm up a bit and just push. [In F2] you have a specific procedure to comply with to get the perfect tyre temp for the first push, or as well to keep the tyres alive long enough in the race run, to go quick, but not overstress them [in order] to keep them on temp. All of this management stuff is something I still need to get used to and learn better.
“I felt very good as well with race runs, doing some tyre management and the pitstops were something new as well. I think I adapted quite quickly to the car. I felt really comfortable from the first lap,” he says.
A single test in a GP2 car prior to visiting Abu Dhabi helped “a bit to get used to the cornering speed, the acceleration, the top speed” of F2, but he notes the GP2 car is “quite different to the current F2 car, especially [in] the driving style”.
Duerksen can unsurprisingly hardly wait to get his hands on F2’s new car. “It’s a new thing to discover, so it’s gonna be interesting. I’m very excited to be driving this new car.”
But it is not only the car and the team which he will have to get used to, as half of the 14 circuits on the calendar are ones he has never raced on before.
The step up in performance from FRegional to F2 is undoubtedly larger, while the structure and visibility of race weekends adds pressure, not least in the dramatically reduced amount of track time compared to FREC. Despite the size of the step, Duerksen says that he is not nervous.
“I now know what [an F2 car] feels like, I know what I need to improve with my driving and on the physical aspects. I know how it’s gonna how it’s going to feel. So, I’m just really excited,” he says. “Of course F2 has a lot more of downforce, a lot more grip. But luckily, I got used to it quite quickly.
Photo: FRECA
Duerksen admits that he struggled at times to get used to some of the FRegional car’s quirky behaviour and the specific driving style required. “Let’s say it’s special,” he says. “There is sometimes some stuff you do with the FREC car which you think doesn’t make sense, but it’s quick somehow. And I think maybe that’s why it was not the best of the seasons in FREC.
“It doesn’t have a lot of grip, but it demands a lot more driving-wise. It’s trickier than the F3 car [which] is really beautiful to drive – every driver loves the F3 car and I understand now why. The FREC car is a bit more challenging to drive so I think that helps us well to get used to the F2.”
Part of the reason the Dallara F2 2018 “felt so comfortable” was “the car’s a lot more predictable”. Whether that characteristic continues into its successor is something the F2 drivers of 2024 are yet to find out. But after two years in FREC, he is looking forward to a change: “Fresh car, fresh team and I think that can definitely help me with my driving style.”
Duerksen will be spared the intense international media spotlight that Antonelli will face, instead being localised to the Paraguayan press, which should allow him time to adapt. His expectations for the season show he has his feet on the ground.
“Realistically, I think top 15 is something we want to reach. The target is to constantly score points, then at the end of the season when I have more mileage and know the team better to score some bigger points. Why not a podium or something like that?”
Whatever the results, you can be sure that the fans in Paraguay will be cheering him on every second. If the red, white and blue flag does get raised on a podium in 2024, there are going to be some very big parties in Asuncion.