{"id":184879,"date":"2025-10-02T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184879\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:10:10","slug":"mclaren-releases-f2-star-dunne-from-development-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184879\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren releases F2 star Dunne from development programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Dunne has been released from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/mclaren\/36473\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">McLaren<\/a> Driver Development programme with immediate effect despite an encouraging season in Formula 2.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old signed with McLaren at the beginning of 2024, but has been released with no reason given ahead of this weekend\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>Dunne has been McLaren\u2019s reserve driver in Formula E this year, while he\u2019s also had two F1 practice outings in Austria and Monza with him particularly impressing at the Red Bull Ring.<\/p>\n<p>The Irishman finished fourth in that FP1 session amid a rookie F2 campaign, where he is currently fifth in the standings having won at Bahrain and Imola earlier in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A McLaren statement read: \u201cMcLaren Racing has ended its contract with McLaren Driver Development Programme member Alex Dunne.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been a pleasure to work with Alex over the last year and to have been able to contribute to his success and growth as a driver through the McLaren Driver Development programme.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/alexander-dunne-mclaren.jpg\" alt=\"Alexander Dunne, McLaren\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Alexander Dunne, McLaren<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Steven Tee \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alex will be released with immediate effect. We wish Alex all the best for his career going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is currently unclear what is next for Dunne, who had been previously touted for an F1 promotion after his Austria drive but such talk has since cooled.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From today I\u2019ve mutually decided to part ways with the McLaren Driver Development programme,\u201d he said on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019d like to thank every individual at McLaren that has helped me develop and improve as a driver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have my first opportunity to drive an F1 car followed by two FP1 sessions is something I\u2019ll always hold very close to my heart. I wish them all the best for the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank you papaya family. Still two important rounds left to focus on this year, very excited for what\u2019s to come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Dunne has been released from the McLaren Driver Development programme with immediate effect despite an encouraging season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64462,64,63,817,85106,813,816,114904,913,118189,37177,85],"class_list":["post-184879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alex-dunne","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-fia-f2","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-marina-bay-street-circuit","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-releases-f2-star-dunne-from-development-programme","tag-singapore-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}