{"id":38522,"date":"2025-08-01T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38522\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:33:09","slug":"dunne-turns-heads-as-f1-paddock-buzz-grows-louder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38522\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunne turns heads as F1 paddock buzz grows louder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"date\">AUGUST  1, 2025<\/p>\n<p>McLaren junior Alex Dunne is emerging as one of the most talked-about prospects in the Formula 1 paddock following his standout FP1 debut in Austria and a breakthrough rookie campaign in Formula 2.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Alex+Dunne%2C+Austrian+GP+2025&amp;photo_copyright=%C2%A9+McLaren&amp;photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fpaut25%2Fsun%2Fmcl%2Fdunne1-lg.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dunne1-rd.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alex Dunne, Austrian GP 2025<br \/>\u00a9 McLaren<\/p>\n<p>Despite a disqualification at Spa stripping him of a feature race win, Dunne sits just 11 points off the F2 championship lead with five rounds remaining. The 19-year-old Irishman has impressed insiders with his adaptability and raw pace &#8211; especially given he finished only 14th in F3 last year.<\/p>\n<p>My performance in FP1 in Austria was a demonstration of my ability to drive a Formula 1 car, said Dunne. In different conditions and driving different cars, I feel like I&#8217;ve always adapted relatively well and quickly.<\/p>\n<p>That Red Bull Ring outing marked his first appearance in an F1 session, but Dunne says each run since has felt more natural. Every time I&#8217;ve driven the car since then, it&#8217;s gotten better and better.<\/p>\n<p>Backed by both McLaren and Rodin Motorsport, Dunne&#8217;s rising profile comes despite a congested F1 driver market. With no immediate vacancies at McLaren, his best option could mirror Oscar Piastri&#8217;s path &#8211; win F2, then wait.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been clear since the beginning of the year, Dunne told Auto Hebdo. Whether there&#8217;s a seat available at McLaren or elsewhere, the best opportunity for me to become an F1 driver is to make sure I win F2. For me, that&#8217;s the only goal.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about negotiations for 2026, he smiled: I don&#8217;t know how much I can answer. That&#8217;s why I have people around me to manage these and try to put me in the right position.<\/p>\n<p>(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUST 1, 2025 McLaren junior Alex Dunne is emerging as one of the most talked-about prospects in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[944,855,884,911,898,64,63,839,840,892,936,937,922,864,868,843,512,874,906,897,817,836,904,848,845,826,837,813,835,816,867,876,894,841,842,833,908,887,860,909,930,914,939,886,934,832,834,858,941,875,861,850,870,854,900,866,846,880,943,889,878,823,881,863,933,935,910,859,913,844,923,927,896,926,883,938,932,806,805,824,803,804,901,871,852,849,888,872,891,915,822,838,918,916,857,879,893,869,931,885,924,847,882,851,865,925,928,942,929,85,920,921,902,862,919,917,873,940,905,912,895,853,856,877,819,903,899,907,890],"class_list":["post-38522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-adrian-sutil","tag-albers","tag-alesi","tag-ammermuller","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-autoracing","tag-autos","tag-badoer","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-benetton","tag-bruno-senna","tag-button","tag-cars","tag-china","tag-david-coulthard","tag-davidson","tag-doornbos","tag-f1","tag-f1-racing","tag-fauzy","tag-felipe-massa","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-ferrari","tag-fia","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-giancarlo-fisichella","tag-gilles-villeneuve","tag-glock","tag-grand-prix","tag-grandprix","tag-grandprix-com","tag-hakkinen","tag-hamilton","tag-heikki-kovalainen","tag-hill","tag-hockenheim","tag-honda","tag-hungary","tag-ide","tag-indianapolis","tag-inside-f1","tag-insidef1-com","tag-jaime-alguesuari","tag-japan","tag-jaques-villeneuve","tag-jarno-trulli","tag-jenson-button","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-kamui-kobayashi","tag-karthikeyan","tag-karun-chandhok","tag-kimi-raikkonen","tag-klien","tag-korea","tag-kovalainen","tag-kubica","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-liuzzi","tag-lucas-di-grassi","tag-magny-cours","tag-malaysia","tag-mansell","tag-mark-webber","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-minardi","tag-monaco","tag-montagny","tag-monte-carlo","tag-monteiro","tag-montreal","tag-monza","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nakajima","tag-nick-heidfeld","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-paffett","tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","tag-piquet","tag-prost","tag-racing","tag-racingcars","tag-red-bull","tag-renault","tag-robert-kubica","tag-rosberg","tag-rossiter","tag-rubens-barrichello","tag-san-marino","tag-sato","tag-sauber","tag-schumacher","tag-scott-speed","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sebastien-buemi","tag-senna","tag-silverstone","tag-singapore","tag-spa","tag-sports","tag-spyker","tag-super-aguri","tag-sutil","tag-timo-glock","tag-toro-rosso","tag-toyota","tag-trulli","tag-turkey","tag-valles","tag-verstappen","tag-vettel","tag-vitaly-petrov","tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","tag-webber","tag-williams","tag-winkelhock","tag-wurz","tag-yamamoto","tag-zonta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38522","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=38522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}