Alex Dunne Megathread

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792199#Comment_123792199

It kind of sums up his season. He's either been absolutely rapid and sailing off into the distance or he's having contact with other drivers. I don't think he's ready for F1, he has no seat next anyway so he may aswell do another year in F2 and work on ironing out the clumsy mistakes

JimBobSnob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792348#Comment_123792348

He can get penalty points in the 7 remaining races left, Sprint and Features

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792348#Comment_123792348

There's 2 races each race weekend

dulpit

Not a good feature race for Dunne, got punted out by Lindblad who rear ended him. Have to assume the title shot is gone, so f2 for 2026 seems the logical step for next season...

McHonda

F2 and maybe a reserve driver role with McLaren? I think he might have had the pace today. So frustrating but still a very entertaining race

Frank Bullitt

F2 makes the most sense. He isn’t remotely ready for F1 yet.

steinbock123

Trouble for him next year is the money , if he does another year of F2. I have it from a reliable source that the drive this year with Roden Motorsport is costing £4m. McLaren put up £2m, as he’s a McLaren junior driver, but he has to find the rest. That’s gotta be hard to raise two years in a row. Many of the other drivers come from extremely rich family backgrounds (Fornaroli for example).

PsychoPete

I find it hard to see him getting an f1 seat without plenty of sponsorship money, there's a lot of good young drivers in F2 and F3 so he'll have plenty of competition

JimBobSnob

He's stated already he is fully funded for 2 F2 seasons since receiving sponsorship from Condron Concrete.

https://www.alexdunneracing.com/condron-concrete/

John Condron's son is the guy in the Offaly jersey every time he's on a podium, who was also a school friend of Alex's and the father has also been there for several races. His season is costing around €3m, half McLaren and the bulk of the other half is Condron, other main sponsors being Harris and BMC. Tapybyl is a new sponsor.

So he doesn't have a rich family but he has the next best thing and he doesn't have funding issues. Not all F1 drivers need sponsorship either, Hamilton, Russell, Leclerc, Piastri to name a few who got there through academies.

Ralf Schumacher doesn't think he needs another F2 season.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1081529/1/ralf-schumacher-warns-itd-be-crazy-if-future-star-not-f1-2026?

Regardless he is fully funded for another year unless McLaren or Condron pulled the plug for some reason.

JimBobSnob

Interesting read where Dunne and Verstappen battled for the lead in GT3 iRacing earlier this year. Dunne held him off for a good part of the race but Verstappen ended up getting him for 1st, Alex 2nd, IndyCar champ Alex Palou 3rd.

https://oversteer48.com/verstappen-beats-indycar-champion-sebring/

manno

Let's hope for a strong end to the season without any more needless incidents. He may be ready for F1 next season but on balance it's probably better to get there a season too late than a season too early. Look at Kimi and how he's struggling at the moment.

prawnsambo

Alex was on a very good lap after a red flag and he'd just completed the first sector over a tenth up when Stanek went off a slip road and rejoined on the racing line and hit Bennet. End of qualifying.

Idiotic by Stanek. Alex likely to be 4th, but could have been higher.

prawnsambo

Plethora of penalties handed out this afternoon. Main one from Alex's pov is that Martins had his best lap deleted which dropped him from 4th to 13th and promoting Alex to 4th.

Stanek got hammered with fastest lap deletion and a 5 grid places penalty for both races.

dulpit

Stanek only getting 5 place drop seems particularly lenient

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123832170#Comment_123832170

Yeah. Got it for both races though. Also got a fastest lap deletion, but he obviously had a decent second fastest one.

But should have been more considering how brain dead he was.

flazio

Well, bollocks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPTYhY2iHht/?igsh=eXNtd2dxcTRvMXp3

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869709#Comment_123869709

shìt didn't see that coming.

dulpit

Just came to post this news too.

Could be 2 things:

1. He's done with McLaren for whatever reason. Based on how well he has performed this year that's unlikely, surely?
2. He has something lined up elsewhere and needs out of his McLaren contract to allow for that.

Hopefully it's an interesting move and not end of the road.

ctrl-alt-delete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869713#Comment_123869713

Surely means he has an offer of something elsewhere for next year. Maybe not rookie but reserve?

dulpit

Wonder if he'll finish the F2 season now. Were McLaren funding his drive?

pjohnson

Altough if he catches on with another academy it could actually improve his chance of getting a seat dramatically.

McLarens seat shortage was always a problem.

ongarite

He won’t be F1 next year now. He hasn’t the super license points required for seat.

He could be just one of the many F2 driver who can’t make it to F1 now. He needs some serious sponsors now with McLaren out

pjohnson

Even just for another run in F2 next year, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull all would fund him I'd say. They all have gaps in their academies.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869750#Comment_123869750

I think that is what it is.

There is no reason for McLaren and he to part ways unless he intends to sign a contract with an unconnected F1 outfit.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869813#Comment_123869813

For 2026 they'll cover his 2025, 2024 and 2023 seasons:

• 2023: 2nd in GB3 = 7 points.
• 2024: Nothing that attracted points.
• 2025: 2 x FP1 sessions with McLaren, but only Austria was over the 100km needed for super licence points = 1 point.

So to get to 40 points needed total he'll need 32 points. If he finishes where he is now (5th) then he gets 20 points. If he can get up to 3rd he gets the 40 needed, a 4th place finish leaves him on 38 points. If he has a team lined up who want him they could throw him into a few FP1 sessions to get the points needed - or send him to one of the various regional events that also attract points. So I don't think his super licence situation is a blocker.

recyclebin

Has been rumours of him talking to Helmut. Dunne looks a better driver than Linblad who is tipped to be driving for Racing Bulla next season.

RoryMac

Released with immediate effect surely means he won't finish the F2 season and as such won't have the required points to drive F1 next year.

If he's gone somewhere else those kind of announcements are usually coordinated so would've expect an announcement from him and his new team pretty much straight away

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123870257#Comment_123870257

According to Alex's own statement

Still two important rounds left to focus on this year, very excited for what's to come

Suggests he intends to see the season through.

dulpit

Rte reporting as it being exciting news for Dunne. Suggests something is in the works.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/motorsport/2025/1002/1536464-excited-dunne-parts-ways-with-mclaren/

seanin4711

unlucky got bumped from the rear each of the last two rounds- nothing to do with him tbh