Alex Dunne joins McLaren Driver Development programme

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The McLaren Formula One team recently announced that Offaly teenager Alex Dunne has joined their driver development programme, making him the first Irish Driver to be part of a Grand Prix teams’ young driver programme.

Currently driving in his maiden Formula 3 season, Dunne is a former British Formula 4 champion and runner up in both the British F3 and Italian F4 series. The Harris Group backed driver has made an excellent start to his first season in F3 as he builds his experience of racing in a Grand Prix support class for the first time.

Alex’s involvement in the McLaren Driver Development programme will see him join the team’s talent pipeline, which was established in 2022, following the team’s long history of developing talent in motorsport and has an overarching aim of helping drivers progress towards Formula 1, IndyCar and Formula E. The programme is led by F1 Business Operations Director Stephanie Carlin who was pleased to announce that Alex had joined the McLaren Driver Development programme and added that he was an exciting and promising young talent with a proven track record in Junior categories, including this season in F3.

Speaking about his McLaren opportunity, Dunne called joining the team an “honour” and believes it is the “perfect” place for him to grow as a driver. “It’s an honour to join the McLaren Driver Development programme and I’m looking forward to getting started with the team,” said Dunne. “McLaren provides the perfect environment for me to develop my skillset as I continue my journey in motorsport. I’m grateful for Zak and Stephanie’s support and I’m excited to meet the rest of the team at MTC (McLaren Technology Centre).”

Alex will continue to race in Formula 3 this season, wearing the McLaren colours and he aims to repay the teams support by continuing his strong progress in F3 this season before an intended move into F2 in 2025, as the final stepping stone on his way to racing in Formula One.

 

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FIA F3 Rounds 3 & 4, Melbourne, Australia – March 22-24 – event details

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You can follow Alex’s progress through Rounds 3 & 4 of the FIA F3 Championship on March 22nd – 24th, using the links below.

The event begins with practice and qualifying on Friday followed by Round 3 on Saturday and Round 4 on Sunday (Saturday evening Irish time).

TIMETABLE FRIDAY
Free Practice: 21:50 – 22:30
Qualifying 1: 03:00 – 03:30

TIMETABLE SATURDAY
Sprint Race: 00:10
Feature Race 20:05

LIVE TIMING

RESULTS

TV Coverage – Sky Sports F1

 

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ALEX DUNNE CONFIRMS FIA FORMULA 3 DRIVE FOR 2024

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Alex dunne today announced his move to the FIA F3 Championship for the 2024 season after agreeing a deal to join MP Motorsport.

Across his first two years in car racing, the Irish teenager has already amassed an impressive 19 race victories, 35 podium finishes and 12 pole positions, demonstrating both his race craft and blistering one-lap pace. After making his debut in single-seaters in 2021, Dunne completed a dual campaign in Formula 4 in ’22, winning the British title with a new record for wins in a single season. Dunne graduated last year to GB3, finishing narrowly as runner-up in the final standings.

Now, the competition will go up another notch as Dunne prepares to battle it out against the best of his generation from all four corners of the globe in his sternest challenge to-date. But in his corner, the 18-year-old has renowned Dutch team MP Motorsport. Regular race winners and front-runners in both Formula 3 and Formula 2 machinery, the team’s talent pathway has helped guide the careers of several stars in recent times, including Felipe Drugovich, Victor Martins, Christian Lundgaard, and Liam Lawson, to name a few.

All rounds of the FIA Formula 3 Championship run in support of Formula 1 ® Grand Prix weekends, putting Dunne on the perfect platform to attract the attention of the sport’s elite names. Sakhir, Bahrain sets the stage for the season opener on 1-2 March, with a subsequent ‘fly away’ at Albert Park, Melbourne three weeks later. After a month break, the European leg of the calendar includes trips to Imola, the iconic streets of Monaco, Barcelona, Spielberg, Silverstone, the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps, where Dunne claimed a dominant double win last campaign. The season finale takes place at Monza on 31 August-1 September.

Alex Dunne (#22) said:
“I’m very excited to confirm I’ll be racing in FIA Formula 3 for 2024. I’m grateful to MP Motorsport, my sponsors and, of course, my family, for helping to put this programme together. “It’s going to be an incredibly competitive championship, with 30 cars per race weekend and the best drivers at this level behind the wheel, but I’m determined to learn quickly and progress from there. “To race on Formula 1 weekends is going to be a new experience for me, but I’m really looking forward to getting going in Bahrain in March.”

To follow Alex’s progress see https://www.fiaformula3.com/. All races are broadcast live on the Sky Sports F1 channel.

 

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Alex Dunne makes extrodinary F3 debut

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Alex Dunne produced an extraordinary performance on his F3 and Macau Grand Prix debut to take second place in Saturday’s first race of two. Having started from sixth on the grid Dunne achieved the almost impossible, around the tight street circuit, by picking off four of his more experienced competitors to move from sixth on the grid through to challenge for the race win.

Saturday’s race saw Dunne make a brilliant first F3 race start to move up to fourth place on the run to the first tight corner, before he was then best on the brakes to take third place. Following a safety car period Dunne was again on the move at the restart and almost got by both lead cars on the opening lap before eventually slotting in to second place.

Once clear in second Alex initially put the race leader, Luke Browning, under pressure, but with the results of Saturday’s encounter deciding the grid for Sunday’s race, Alex settled for second and a front row start for his first appearance in the Macau Grand Prix.

The F3 rookie’s getaway in Sunday’s main race was not as good as Saturday’s and he found himself on the outside of a queue of cars heading into turn 1. With no gap in the traffic to get back in line, Alex ran out of room on the outside and his Macau debut ended in the barrier.

Despite his early retirement the Irish teenager could still leave Macau with his head held high as on one of the most daunting tracks in world motorsport he was easily the most impressive Macau and F3 rookie in the field.

 

 

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Alex confirms Macau Grand Prix debut

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GB3 Championship runner-up Alex Dunne is the latest graduate of the UK’s leading single-seater category to confirm his place on the grid for this year’s FIA Formula 3 World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix.

The Irishman won five races in GB3 this year with Hitech Pulse-Eight, as he took the title fight to the very last race of the year at Donington Park. The 17-year-old then gained his first experience of the FIA F3 car to be used at Macau, in post-season testing at Imola, where he posted the fastest time in the final session.

Dunne has now opted to remain with Hitech as he takes on the challenges of the Armco-lined Guia Circuit next weekend (16-19 November), as the Macau GP celebrates its 70th event.

Previous winners of the event include Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher and Takuma Sato.

 

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GB3 Finale, Donington October 21st & 22nd 2023

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You can follow Alex’s progress through the final event of the 2023 GB3 Championship at Donington Park, on October 21st & 22nd, using the links below.

The event begins with qualifying on Saturday morning, followed by Race 1, with races 2 & 3 on Sunday.

TIMETABLE SATURDAY
Qualifying: 10:50 – 11:10
Race 1: 14:57 – 15:17

TIMETABLE SUNDAY
Race 2: 10:07 – 10:27
Race 3: 15:20 – 15:45

LIVE TIMING & RESULTS

LIVESTREAM – Available Saturday & Sunday

 

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Dunne Dominates Dutch GB3 weekend

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Alex Dunne claimed his third and fourth GB3 wins of the season over the weekend of October 19th & 20th at Zandvoort, Holland, to reawaken his championship challenge with just one weekend left to run. The Offaly teenager’s double win puts him firmly back into championship contention, as the series heads to Donington Park for the final three races, on October 21st & 22nd.
A very strong run in qualifying saw Dunnes’ Hitech Pulse Eight car line up on pole for race one and second for race two, with championship leader, Callum Voisin, down in tenth, offering the Irish driver a fantastic opportunity to make up some ground on the leader.

In Saturday’s first race Dunne made a strong getaway to lead the opening laps before a safety car intervened. On the restart Dunne once again got his head down and opened up a large gap with a string of fastest laps. At the flag he took victory by more than six seconds and set fastest lap of the race with a time almost three quarters of a second quicker than any of his rivals.

Saturday afternoon’s second race saw Dunne again take the lead and then pull away from the pack after an early safety car. In a near identical showing to his race one performance, his second win was once again a dominant one taking the flag with a winning margin of almost five seconds and again setting fastest race lap.

Sunday’s race three was run in torrential rain and ran almost entirely under safety car. GB3 runs a reverse grid for its third race of the weekend and this put Alex at the very back, well behind all of his championship rivals. A good start saw him gain a number of places before the safety car was deployed. On the restart the Harris Group backed driver began to work his way through the field again but another safety car brought his progress to a halt. This time around the organisers ran out of time to clear the track for a return to action and the race ended behind the safety car, thwarting Alex’s chances of making up further ground in the championship.

The reigning British F4 Champion now heads to Donington Park with a strong chance of making it back to back British titles. Just seventeen points separate Alex from the top spot and with three races still to run a good finish in race one could put him right back in the title fight.

 

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Alex stars at Mondello Park Historic Festival

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The annual Mondello Park Historic Festival presented Alex Dunne with an exciting opportunity to broaden his experience, with a star performance behind the wheel of a historic Le Mans 24 hour class winning Sportscar. The teenager drove the 1986 Spice SE86, from the circuits’ Martin Birrane collection, which was raced to a class victory at the 1987 Le Mans 24 hours as well as seven World Sportscar Championship race wins in the same year.

Having only tasted the performance of the Group C2 car for the first time on the Friday before the event, Alex was trusted with the rare and valuable car for two demonstration runs, one on the Saturday of the event and one on Sunday. Despite having only previously driven much smaller, lighter and more modern single seater machinery, the Laois youngster put on a great show for the large crowd as he impressed behind the wheel of the unfamiliar racer.

Speaking following his Sunday run Alex said “What an opportunity that was. The car was completely different to anything I’ve driven before so I hope that I did it justice and that everyone enjoyed seeing it on track as much as I enjoyed driving it. I am so grateful to Mondello Park and the Birrane family for allowing me to experience this piece of motorsport history and for all of their other support during the year”.

 

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Record Breaking Belgian weekend for Alex Dunne

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It proved to be a memorable weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Alex Dunne, as the Irishman claimed his first two GB3 victories, broke the record for the most points earned in a three-race GB3 event since the implementation of the current points structure in 2018, and earned the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award.

Dunne proved to be rapid all weekend, just missing out on pole position in qualifying by a tenth of a second, but overturned that in races one and two by sweeping past pole sitter Callum Voisin on each occasion.

In doing so, he also set the fastest race lap of the weekend, with his time of 2m16.223s coming on the same lap he passed Voisin for the win.

Dunne is the third recipient of the prize this year, with championship leader Joseph Loake securing the honour at Oulton Park, and Tymek Kucharczyk earning it at Silverstone.

“I’m very happy with how this weekend has gone,” Dunne said. “Our pace was super strong right from the start in practice, the team at Hitech GP gave me a fantastic car to drive all weekend, so a huge thanks to them.

“I’m glad we’ve finally had the opportunity to showcase the pace we have, taking two wins and the fastest lap to go with it each time.

“I’m feeling very comfortable in GB3 now, and that’s starting to come out in our results. It’s great to catch up a lot of points in the championship, and I’m looking forward to what we can achieve from here, starting at Snetterton next time out.”

 

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Irish Rising Star Alex Dunne Begins GB3 Championship at Oulton Park

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The next stage in Alex Dunne’s burgeoning single seater career begins at Oulton Park this weekend [8-10 April] as the Irishman kicks off his 2023 GB3 Championship campaign.

The 17-year-old dominated Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series last year, setting a new record of 11 race victories in a single season, a further six podiums, five outright pole positions and an eventual winning margin of 79 points, despite contesting only nine of the ten rounds.

Dunne was similarly impressive en route to second in the Italian F4 standings but will remain in the UK to contest the highly-competitive GB3 Championship in 2023, for what will be his third season in single seaters.

“I’m really looking forward to the start of the season,” says the teenager from Offaly. “I think we have a little bit more time to find, from what I’ve seen in testing, but I’m sure with time and experience, we’ll be in the mix.

“Last year was fantastic, breaking records and enjoying plenty of success, but nothing in motorsport is guaranteed and I’m expecting it to be trickier this time around, having gone up another level.
“In my opinion, it’s going to be a very close championship, but I’m looking forward to the fight.”

With a new championship comes a new car to learn, with Dunne now racing the Tatuus MSV-022 that is unique to GB3. With more power, downforce and aerodynamic performance than the FIA F4 car, it represents a learning curve, but one that Dunne is wholeheartedly enjoying.

“The big jump was definitely the downforce,” explains Dunne. “In terms of speed, there’s not really a whole lot of difference. But adjusting to the higher downforce and a naturally aspirated engine – in F4, we had a turbo – so getting my head around how the power applies out of a corner was also something I had to learn.”

It’s a new environment, but for Dunne, the ultimate ambition remains exactly the same. “Coming off the back of the season I had last year, with hard work and the right application, we should be running up at the front.”

In 2023, GB3 will comprise of eight events – six in the UK, plus overseas trips to Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort – and it all begins around the fast, flowing Oulton Park International circuit this weekend.

 

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