Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing’s Cian Shields ended Formula 2’s pre-season test at Barcelona on top on Thursday afternoon.

Only Hitech GP and AIX completed installation laps in the first 27 minutes, with Invicta Racing then heading out. The first laptime came 34 minutes into the three-hour session, a 1m32.188s from AIX’s Emmo Fittipaldi.

Shields swiftly beat him by 0.773s, and Fittipaldi improved to be 0.152s off before Hitech’s drivers laid down their first laptimes. Colton Herta posted a 1m30.912s, then Ritomo Miyata went 0.157s quicker.

Shields got within 0.886s of Miyata’s benchmark, and 43 minutes in Invicta’s Joshua Duerksen became the fifth driver with a laptime to their name as ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing and Rodin Motorsport embarked on installation laps.

On his next atttempt, Duerksen set a 1m30.381s for third place, and Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne was 0.034s behind with his opening effort. When team-mate Alex Dunne completed his first flying lap, his 1m29.534s made him fastest by 0.221s. Stenshorne then improved to 1m29.960s in third.

Dunne was only on top for a minute, as Invicta’s Rafael Camara edged ahead by 0.099s. But Dunne responded, reclaiming first place by 0.073s. More than half of the field was now active, and Herta set a personal best in fifth, 0.6s off the pace.

Campos’s line-up posted their first flying laps 57 minutes in, with Noel Leon beating Nikola Tsolov to sixth. Tsolov found more pace on his next two laps, and a 1m29.740s put him third.

Hour two began with the first laptimes from ART GP’s drivers, which sent them straight to the top. Kush Maini set a 1m28.582s to lead Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak by 0.291s, as Stenshorne improved in seventh. DAMS’ Roman Bilinski and the Dutch teams MP Motorsport and Van Amersfoort Racing had still not left their garages.

With the track more rubbered in, those going straight into flying laps could extract more pace and Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen went third fastest, 0.553s off Maini, five minutes into hour two as most drivers embarked on long runs.

Van Hoepen’s team-mate John Bennett and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya soon appeared on the timesheet, and Nico Varrone departed VAR’s garage while Rafael Villagomez remained there all afternoon.

Tsolov and Leon improved in sixth and eighth at the 70-minute mark, and the first laptime from a DAMS driver appeared.

It took another seven minutes for MP’s duo and Bilinski to finally set timed laps, with the latter taking 12th place. Approaching the session’s halfway mark, 20 drivers were on track and Varrone went ninth fastest with his first flying lap.

Camara rose from fifth to third with 75 minutes to go, 0.059s ahead of van Hoepen, and the long runs concluded as hour two ended.

Varrone started racking up laps, but eventually only he and Herta were on track and then he was alone with 45 minutes to go before Hitech’s drivers headed back out. Four minutes on Varrone pitted, and later AIX’s drivers left the pits.

Shields lowered the pace by 1.911s with 33 minutes remaining, shooting up from 20th place. Fittipaldi went fastest by 0.32s three minutes later, and both pitted.

Several drivers started new runs, while Shields returned to track for a few laps and reclaimed top spot by 0.082s with 22 minutes left of the test.

The track got busier, and two improvements lifted Prema’s Mari Boya to fifth, 2.673s off Shields, 14 minutes from the end.

Shield’s advantage was cut to 0.039s by Leon four minutes after that, and Herta and Miyata then set a 1m27.869s and 1m28.788s respectively to rise to fourth and sixth.

Red flags waved when van Hoepen stopped on the pit straight, and there was scant action in the three minutes left after that.

Afternoon session results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing has become the first Formula 2 team to complete its driver line-up for 2026.

Cian Shieds will continue with the team for another season, when he will be joined by rookie Emmo Fittipaldi.

The Scottish-Irish driver first joined the team for the last two rounds of the 2024 season, having spent much of that year racing in FIA Formula 3 with Hitech.

Now one year into his F2 career, his best results have been two 11th places: in his debut feature race in Qatar a year ago and in the Imola feature race this May.

Shields quickly climbed the ranks to reach F2, making his single-seater debut in GB3 in 2022 and coming 13th, before finishing second in Euroformula Open in 2023 and then moving onto F3. This year he has driven an Aston Martin Formula 1 car in private tests.

“I’m happy to continue with AIX Racing for another season in FIA Formula 2,” Shields said. “This year had its challenges, but I’ve taken a lot of lessons from it and I feel ready to come back stronger. With the experience we’ve built together, I’m confident we can take a big step forward and fight for the results we want.”

Morne Reinecke, AIX Racing team principal, added: “We are excited to continue with Cian for the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season. The 2025 season has been challenging for him and the team, but we strongly believe in his talent and determination. With the team’s full backing and support, we are confident that we can create the right environment for Cian to take the next step forward; the step that both he and the team are striving for.”

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Photo: Red Bull

Three junior single-seater talents have been driving Formula 1 cars recently, at Monza and in a city centre.

Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov was on home soil in Bulgaria last weekend driving in a Red Bull showrun on the streets of its capital city Sofia.

He was at the wheel of 2011’s Red Bull RB7, which is too old for use in F1’s testing of previous car (TPC) programmes, but was still a landmark for the 18-year-old FIA Formula 3 driver since the demo (and the day he did on an airfield the day before to learn how to donut) marked his first ever running in an F1 car.

Aston Martin was at Monza last week with its two-year-old AMR23 car to do TPC running with its junior driver Jak Crawford and his F2 rival Cian Shields.

Crawford drove on Friday, following up previous TPC call-ups and driving in F1’s official young driver test at the end of 2024, and Shields drove on Saturday after previously testing with Aston Martin at Silverstone in April.

The 20-year-old Scot is not connected to the team, and is yet to comment on how his test opportunities have came about.

He started his single-seater career in 2022, coming 13th in GB3 with one win, then stepped up to the F3-level Euroformula for 2023. Four wins and six other podiums helped him become championship runner-up.

He moved across to FIA F3 in 2024, which was an unsuccessful endeavour as he came 30th in the standings with no points and a best finish of 14th place. At the end of the year he joined AIX Racing for two F2 rounds, and finished 11th on his second start, then has remained with the team this season. So far he has matched his best result and sits 20th in the standings.

Last month McLaren handed a long-awaited F1 test debut to its simulator driver Jake Hughes at Barcelona, where he drove its MCL60 car from 2023.

The 31-year-old Englishman was a race-winner in GP3, FIA European F3 and the FIA F3 Championship, and had three-top five finishes from 26 races in F2 from 2020 to ’22.

By then his focus was Formula E, joining Mercedes-EQ as test driver in 2020 and in 2021 becoming its full-time development driver, reserve driver for powertrain customer Venturi Racing and simulator driver for Mercedes-AMG’s F1 team.

Those roles continued into 2022, when Aston Martin also signed him as an F1 simulator driver. Hughes finally joined the FE grid in 2023, and across two seasons with McLaren picked up four poles but only one podium. He left its FE squad to join rival Maserati for the 2024-25 season, and has claimed his second podium with the team.

McLaren junior and Formula 4 driver Ella Lloyd has been called up by the team for FE’s rookie test in Berlin next month. She also drove for them in FE’s women’s test at Jarama last November.

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Photo: AIX Racing

The AIX Racing Formula 2 team will keep Cian Shields in its line-up for the 2025 season.

Scottish driver Shields has made a rapid climb through the single-seater ranks, making his F2 debut in what was just his third year in car racing when he joined AIX for the last two rounds of 2024.

Skipping Formula 4 altogether, he started his single-seater career in GB3 in 2022 with Hitech and came 13th in the standings, then switched to Euroformula Open for 2023 with Motopark and finished runner-up to Noel Leon in the championship after winning four races.

He rejoined Hitech to move into FIA Formula 3 last year, when a 14th-place finish in the Barcelona sprint race was his best result.

Taking over the AIX seat previously occupied by Taylor Barnard and then Niels Koolen, Shields finished just shy of the points in 11th in the feature race on his debut F2 weekend in Qatar. He otherwise finished 18th on his other three starts, and went on to do all three days of post-season testing in Abu Dhabi with the team.

The confirmation of Shields should put an end – for now – to speculation surrounding sportscar ace Nico Varrone, who had joined AIX for the final day of the Abu Dhabi test in the sister car of Joshua Duerksen. That test was surrounded by a social media campaign by Argentine fans, keen to see him return to single-seaters following the success of compatriot Franco Colapinto.

This week, 24-year-old former GB3 racer Varone was named as a hypercar driver in the World Endurance Championship for the Proton Competition team, and will share its Porsche 963 with Chilean ex-Euroformula racer Nico Pino and Porsche veteran Neel Jani. He will combine that drive with IMSA Endurance Cup outings for Corvette.

Three F2 seats remain unfilled at ART Grand Prix, Rodin Motorsport and Van Amersfoort Racing, as occupied by Victor Martins, Alex Dunne and Rafael Villagomez respectively in testing.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

McLaren junior Alex Dunne will take part in this week’s post-season Formula 2 test in Abu Dhabi with Rodin Motorsport ahead of a potential step up to the series for 2025.

With 16 out of 22 drivers already announced by their teams for next season, very few question marks were left to be answered by the publication of the entry list for the three-day test that begins on Wednesday.

In fact, of the remaining seven seats, six will be filled for the start of the test by the same drivers that occupied them during the season-ending races at Yas Marina.

Irishman Dunne contested his first season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2023 with MP Motorsport, and gained the backing of the McLaren Formula 1 team early in the year. He finished the campaign 14th in the standings with sprint race podiums at Barcelona and Monza.

Dunne was previously a dominant British Formula 4 champion in 2022, when he also finished second to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Italian series. He went on to also be runner-up in GB3 in 2023.

One driver staying on with his 2024 team for the test is Victor Martins amid speculation that he could remain in the series for a third year with ART Grand Prix.

The Alpine junior finished fifth overall as top rookie in 2023 but experienced a more difficult second season with the new-for-2024 car, eventually recovering to seventh in the championship with a single sprint race win at Barcelona and one pole position in Abu Dhabi.

AIX Racing and Van Amersfoort Racing both retain their line-ups from the final two rounds of the 2024 season, with Joshua Duerksen and Rafael Villagomez preparing for their second seasons and joined respectively by Cian Shields and John Bennett, who both made their F2 debuts in Qatar.

However, Duerksen will hand his car over to Argentine driver Nico Varrone for Friday’s final day. The 24-year-old last raced a single-seater intermittently in GB3 in 2019 and 2020, after winning the 2018 V de V Challenge. He went on to become a star of sportscar racing, winning the World Endurance Championship’s LMGTE Am title with Corvette Racing in 2023.

Test entry list

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Photo: Fotospeedy

Cian Shields will make his Formula 2 debut with PHM Racing at Losail next weekend, and stay with the team for the season finale a week later.

The 19-year-old Briton will become the third driver to pilot the team’s #25, and joins the grid in Qatar and Abu Dhabi after a lacklustre FIA Formula 3 campaign with Hitech GP that included a best finish of 14th and left him 30th in the standings.

“I’m looking forward to this fantastic opportunity and ready to make an impact with the team, giving it everything in these last races,” said Shields.

Taylor Barnard drove for PHM in the first 10 rounds of the F2 season, then got signed by McLaren to race in Formula E for the 2024-25 season. That would have required him to miss the F2 finale, and he decided to end his season four rounds early.

Although he had won the sprint race in Monaco, Barnard had only scored three times in a tough rookie campaign. His replacement Niels Koolen found F2 even tougher, and finished no higher than 19th in the rounds he did as his replacement.

Koolen had failed to score in Formula 4 and Formula Regional over the previous two years, and at the start of 2024 he made a surprise step up to single-seaters’ second tier in Indy Nxt where the non-FIA points system enabled him to score in every race he did.

He was only signed by PHM for two F2 rounds, and it was understood he would then be replaced if another driver if one could be found.

Like Koolen, Shields is only in his third year of car racing. As a rookie he took a reversed-grid race win and two second places in GB3, which put him 13th in the standings, then he stepped up to F3-level competition last year by racing in Euroformula. In a small grid, he won four races and was championship runner-up.

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Photo: Fotospeedy

Cian Shields will move across to the FIA Formula 3 Championship next year with Hitech GP after being Euroformula runner-up in 2023.

The 18-year-old follows the champion Noel Leon in staying in the third tier of single-seaters rather than step up to Formula 2.

Shields will be reuniting with Hitech, as he drove for the team in GB3 last year as a car racing rookie. He came 13th in the standings with one win in a reversed-grid race, achieved on his sixth start in the series. There were also two second places in reversed-grid races, with his best result in a regular race being a fifth place.

He built on that experience in Euroformula, winning four reversed-grid races with the dominant Motopark team.

“I am excited to join Hitech in FIA F3 next year. It will be a new challenge for me, but one I am looking forward to,” said Shields.

“Having raced with the team in GB3 in 2022, I have every confidence that they will allow me to develop in my rookie season in the series. Looking forward to getting the season started in Bahrain.”

He will be team-mate to Macau Grand Prix winner Luke Browning and Formula Regional European Championship runner-up Martinius Stenshorne.

Hitech’s F3 team manager Paul Bellringer commented: “We are delighted to add Cian to our F3 line-up for next season. We are confident in his ability, having raced with the team in GB3 last year and taking a win and podiums together. Here’s to a successful season ahead.”

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Photo: Fotospeedy

Motopark’s Cian Shields won Euroformula’s reversed-grid third race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

Shields started third on the grid behind team-mates Jakob Bergmeister and Bryce Aron, and slow launches from both meant he was in the middle of a three-wide run to turn one.

Aron had the inside line so briefly was ahead but a stronger exit from Shields meant he took the lead as they went uphill to turn two. At tun three Aron tried passing around the outside but went way off and rejoined still in second.

Bergmeister finished the opening lap in third behind them, with championship leader Noel Leon climbing from sixth to fourth ahead of Joshua Dufek and Francesco Simonazzi who had come from ninth and last on the grid.

Simonazzi attempted to take fifth from Dufek around the outside at turn three on lap two, but went off and fell behind Charlie Wurz.

The top two pulled away after that, with Bergmeister leading a train of cars. Leon escaped that train by taking third place at turn three on lap six of 20 after Bergmeister got tail happy exiting turn one, then Dufek cleared him too on lap eight.

Leon chased down Aron and took second from him on lap nine, with the latter seeming to have a straightline speed deficit that became noticable when he was attacked by other drivers later in the race.

Dufek passed Aron on lap 15 after massively closing in down the pit straight, and Wurz moved onto Aron’s tail on the penultimate lap before passing him at turn five on the final tour. Wurz had got into fifth halfway through the race, passing Bergmeister at turn three despite running wide.

Aron’s final finishing position was sixth, as he ran through the gravel after losing out to Wurz and that cost him another spot to Simonazzi. He dropped so much time in the remaining corners that he remained behind Simonazzi even when the Italian’s two-second penalty for track limits abuse was applied.

Race result (20 laps)

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Photo: Fotospeedy

Motopark’s Bryce Aron and Cian Shields won Euroformula’s two reversed-grid races at Paul Ricard on Sunday.

The debuting Attila Penzes started on pole for race two, ahead of fellow debutant Vladislav Ryabov, Shields, Aron, Jakob Bergmeister and race one winner Juju Noda.

Penzes started slowly and Shields stalled, with Francesco Simonazzi having to go off track to avoid him. Ryabov briefly assumed the lead, but Aron overtook him exiting turn one. Noda was third after resisting several challenges from points leader Noel Leon, and Simonazzi got into fifth.

Simonazzi passed Leon into turn one on lap two, and Shields got by him two corners later while Aron streaked two seconds clear of Ryabov. On lap four of 15, Ryaboc went wide at Signes and conceded second to Noda, but then briefly got back ahead before Noda went wide and passed again off-track, leading to her dropping back behind him before the final corner.

That helped Aron build his lead to 5.3s, and on the next lap Shields went past Simonazzi and Noda at turn one. They then caught Ryabov again, and Ryabov repeated his earlier error but did not lost position. Shields tried the outside of the final corner but made contact with Simonazzi instead, and dropped behind him and Leon.

But Shields regained a place with a driving move at turn three next time by, and climbed another spot when Ryabov went off at Beausset, flew over a kerb and dropped down the order.

Aron was 12s clear at the race’s halfway point, and he managed the gap thereon to take his third win.

Shields got into second and streaked away as Simonazzi dropped behind Leon, but he reclaimed third at the chicane on lap 11. Leon lost two places the next lap, as he suffered from an engine issue, and he finished seventh.

Noda passed Bergmeister into the chicane on lap 13 for fourth place, but was too far away from Simonazzi to fight for the podium.

Shields and Noda shared the front row for race three, and Shield was slow off the line while Noda spun her rear wheels. They managed to avoid being overtaken and Shields used late braking and inside line to lead into turn one.

Simonazzi went from fifth to third, and at the chicane he tried passing Noda. She cut the corner entirely, rejoining way ahead while Simonazzi lost out to Leon. Noda avoided a penalty for gaining an advantage, and on lap three she went off at turn one as she was passed by Leon.

Shields was unchallenged up front and won by 1.364s over Leon, Noda finished a distant third and Aron went down the inside of Simonazzi at Beausset to take fourth.

Results round-up
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Bryce Aron Motopark 29m27.431s
2 Cian Shields Motopark +10.730s
3 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing +19.003s
4 Juju Noda Noda Racing +20.687s
5 Jakob Bergmeister Motopark +22.141s
6 Vladislav Ryabov CryptoTower Racing Team +25.262s
7 Noel Leon Motopark +33.322s
8 Attila Penzes CryptoTower Racing Team +43.352s
Fastest lap: Shields, 1m57.142s

Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Shields 29m27.109s
2 Leon +1.364s
3 Noda +6.650s
4 Aron +9.412s
5 Simonazzi +13.520s
6 Bergmeister +15.968s
7 Ryabov +17.097s
8 Penzes +45.244s
FL: Shields, 1m57.087s

Championship standings
1 Leon 201   2 Aron 184   3 Shields 165   4 Simonazzi 154   5 Noda 118   6 Bergmeister 98   7 Josh Mason 96   8 Tim Tramnitz 55   9 Enzo Trulli 50   10 Ryabov 24

The post Aron and Shields win Euroformula’s Sunday races at Paul Ricard appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Fotospeedy

Motopark’s Cian Shields picked up his first Euroformula win in the third race at Spa-Francorchamps, which was ended early by red flags.

The race was actually stopped twice, the first occassion being on the opening lap after reversed-grid pole-sitter Gerrard Xie stalled at the start and was driven straight into the back of by Motopark’s Jakob Bergmeister who had started seventh.

Bergmeister also hit NV Racing’s Paolo Brajnik on his right, wiping out all three of them on the spot.

Xie’s CryptoTower Racing Team team-mate Josh Mason darted around him at the start and almost took the lead from front row starter Bryce Aron.

It was Aron whose nose was ahead exiting La Source, but it meant Mason then had the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight and he moved past with ease while BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi briefly made it three-wide. Their battling was paused by the red flags, and the order for the restart was set by the positions the cars were in when the red flags waved.

The safety car led the field through lap two, then when racing resumed properly on lap three an amazing move from Shields around the outside of Les Combes got him past Simonazzi and Aron into second place.

Aron did go off late in the corner, and Simonazzi at the end of the lap looked to regain a place from Shields but was unable to.

Shields passed Mason for the lead at Les Combes on the next lap, while Aron and Noel Leon (who had to get past Juju Noda after a slow start dropped him behind her) went side-by-side through the final sector until Leon got ahead at the last corner.

Simonazzi demoted Mason to third at Les Combes on lap six, but he couldnot close in on Shields. The fastest driver on track was championship leader Leon, who went down the inside of Mason at Les Combes on lap eight before Mason ran off the track, then on lap 10 he got ahead of Simonazzi after the Italian also cut the corner.

Later in the lap there was drama as Simonazzi ran wide at Pouhon and hit a patch of dust that had been laid down on the asphalt area of the run-off due to there previously being liquids there. As soon as Simonazzi hit the dust, the rear of his car spun around and he went into the barriers.

The safety car initially came out, then the race was red flagged on the next lap. That meant the results were taken from two laps prior, so Shields ended up taking the win over Simonazzi and with Leon in third.

Race result (9 laps)

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