‘I am happy to break every record’: Ireland's Alex Dunne on Formula One, McLaren and making history
Alex Dunne made history when he took the podium at Bahrain International Circuit. Picture: James Sutton
With Ambhrán na bhFiann playing in the pitlane of the Bahrain International Circuit, 19-year-old Alex Dunne took to the top step of the podium as Ireland’s first ever Formula 2 race winner earlier this month.
You’d imagine such a historic moment would be cause for celebrations, but with a busy race schedule there was no time to digest, Dunne was straight on a plane to Saudi Arabia to prepare for another race in Jeddah.
The Offaly native says his “racing journey has been pretty typical”, starting karting when he was nine, competing in Ireland for a year and a half before a couple of years racing in the UK and then a further two years in European karting. He got his first taste for speed sitting on his dad’s lap in Mondello, Kildare.
“I started racing because of him” explains Dunne. “He was a relatively good driver in his day [in Formula Ford]. I think I’m better now, but he was pretty good. I’d always hear people talk about him, saying, you know, your dad is very good. That was always pretty cool to hear.”
The dream for Dunne is to reach the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1 and he’s been climbing through the lower-tier racing categories at an impressive rate.
“I think I saw a stat on Instagram the other day that I’ve never done more than one full season in a feeder series championship. So I’ve kind of just done a year of everything and moved up pretty quickly”.
This isn’t always the case and even championship winners aren’t guaranteed a seat. You need to have the results, sponsorship and get noticed by the top teams amongst other things, there’s a lot to juggle.
This year, six rookie drivers have graduated from F2 to F1, the largest intake in over a decade.
“It’s nice to see,” Dunne says. “Because that’s not always what happens, but hopefully in the few years to come, we can continue like that, and I can get an opportunity”.
Despite just starting the season in F2, Dunne is already looking ahead to the natural next step, which would be to get behind the wheel of an F1 car.
Formula 1 teams must run junior drivers during four separate practice sessions (twice in each of their cars) at race weekends, a requirement that has doubled in 2025. “The chance of me getting an FP1 is obviously going to be much higher if I keep on doing what I did in Bahrain. So if we can kind of continue to do that and have good results, then I would like to think that the possibility of driving an F1 car this year is possible”.
Dunne caught the attention of McLaren, who are current World Constructors’ Champions in F1, joining their Driver Development Programme last year.
“It involves all the stuff you’d want as a junior driver; having nutrition and fitness help, access to the sim and stuff at McLaren, which has been beneficial for me. My dad has always been my driver coach, but when I signed with McLaren, a guy called Warren Hughes, who used to be a racing driver as well, is now my coach from McLaren, and he’s there with me every weekend, still alongside my dad. They’re helping me develop as much as I can, they’re really pushing me on.”
With all of the travel at such a young age, I ask if he feels he’s missing out on anything back home.
“I would say I’m missing out on nothing, to be honest. Most of my friends are all involved in racing. Whether it’s people I race against or people I’ve raced against previously, pretty much all of my friends are all involved in motorsport in some way. One of my sponsors, Condron Concrete Works, have a son called Luke who I’m pretty friendly with. It’s nice to be close with the family of someone who sponsors you. I think that’s pretty cool.
Being away from home for weeks at a time doesn’t bother Dunne either, “I think when you explain that to someone, it sounds a little bit tough. But I really enjoy it, to be honest”.
More time on the road means more time behind the wheel, which is exactly what young drivers hoping to progress need.
“Normally, with the financial struggles and things like that, I’ve never really had a lot of time, because I’ve never really been able to be in the car all the time” Dunne explains, “it’s nice to have another year this year where I’m driving a lot more. I think the prep for this year has been pretty good. We had three days of pre-season testing in Abu Dhabi, three days in Barcelona and three days in Bahrain after the first race in Melbourne. So that’s quite a lot, to be honest, much more than what you’d normally get at this level. I’m happy that we’re racing a lot, and I think in comparison to what I’ve had in previous years, I would say it’s beneficial for me, because I can stay on top of things”.
It’s hard to talk about motorsport in 2025 without mentioning the hit Netflix series the show that has been credited with increasing Formula 1 viewership dramatically. I ask Dunne what he makes of the impact DTS has had.
“I’ve always watched them. I think it’s very good for people who don’t understand motorsport. It’s good to bring people outside of the sport into it and help them understand it a little bit more. But, at the same time, it’s kind of like a reality TV show where they make things look a bit more dramatic than what it is.”
“It’s nice that people are getting involved more in motorsport, and there’s more and more fans that are enjoying it, and how cool it is, the things that we do.”
For now, Dunne says being in F2 is a dream come true, but make no mistake, the goal is F1. He’s already broken a record set by one of this year’s Formula 1 frontrunners, Lando Norris, back in British F4 for most minutes in a season. When he met McClaren for a debrief session at the team’s HQ, he wasn’t shy about setting out his plans.
“I would be very happy to break every single one of their records,” he says cheekily. “Hopefully, they don’t take it too hard if I beat a few more. That’s the plan.”
Macau, definitely. It's probably one of the quickest tracks I've ever driven. You're going 300kmh through big metal walls. It's pretty cool.
I'm slightly superstitious, in the sense that if I do something in particular on a race weekend, and then that race weekend goes well, I'll then just do whatever that was the same at every other race weekend, because I think it worked.
When I'm at home, I do a lot of sim racing. All the stuff that Max [Verstappen, four times F1 World Champion] does, I do the exact same - I've raced against him online quite a few times.
Lando Norris.
To be F1 World Champion.
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