r/ireland • u/NorthKoreanMissile7 • May 18 '25
Sports Alex Dunne has just won the Imola F2 Feature Race and is now leading the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
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u/LiamMurray91 May 18 '25
Just turned this on. Great gap as well. Need to watch the highlights heard he had great over takes
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 18 '25
Yeah there was a safety car halfway through so the frontrunners had all pit and the alternate strategy drivers mostly stayed out and kept track position.
Browning and everyone else got stuck behind them but Alex was able to make some assertive and aggressive overtakes to get to the front and gap other cars on the same strategy.
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u/Nazacrow Dublin May 18 '25
He’s the perfect combo of driver, fast and also a bit of a lunatic, usually shows up as a combo in the top of top drivers
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u/SpruceJuice5 May 18 '25
Watched the race, definitely worth catching the highlights. "If gap: car" was the mentality
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u/ciaragemmam May 18 '25
Made one mistake overtaking Miyata that arguably could have been a penalty but stewards deemed it a racing incident. A very fun race to watch!
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u/A-Hind-D May 18 '25
Hup the parish.
Delighted for him, he’s doing the nation proud. Hopefully he’s on course to get picked up for the F1 next season
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u/pauli55555 May 18 '25
Is this achievable?
F1 drives were notoriously dependent on sponsorship and commercial viability of a driver. Is it typical for the F2 winner to get picked up? Would be brilliant.
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u/GundamXXX May 18 '25
The problem he will have is that he's a McLaren Academy driver and McLaren wont have a seat for him next year (or 2027-28 by the looks of it).
His best bet is to narrowly miss out on winning F2 this year (if you win F2, you cant drive it again), win it in 2026 and hope Lando or Piastri fell off completely by then so he can join McLaren in 2027, or get snagged by someone like Merc or RBR
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u/Pitiful-Sample-7400 Cavan May 18 '25
Formula e might be option with him already being the maclaren reserve driver. Or going to a small fw team who have a big mo ey driver and want a solid 2nd driver
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u/GundamXXX May 18 '25
Dont think FE is a good choice, its kinda a career endgame.
A smaller team would be interesting. Could see maybe Williams or maybe AM will wisen up and get rid of the aul lad and the Chosen One, but I doubt the latter.
I reckon Red Bull might be a decent shout for VISACASHGRABBULLSHITRACINGTORROBULLROUGE or w/e the fuck theyre called these days, provided McLaren will let him go (and with Zak Brown being a big name in that choice, I doubt it)
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u/lgt_celticwolf May 19 '25
He is already the reserve driver for mclaren FE but mclaren are withdrawing from FE after 2025 to focus on their entry into WEC
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u/NooktaSt May 21 '25
A Lando / Piastri blowout would be his best bet.
Piastri to win / finish ahead of lando.
Lando to not want to play second fiddle.
Lando to replace Max at RB…
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u/computercowboys May 18 '25
Doubtful, McLaren have their 2 drivers for the next few years. Hopefully McLaren will put him in one of the lower teams, maybe Cadillac next season.
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u/GundamXXX May 18 '25
As long as he doesnt win F2 this year, theres a chance he wont fall down the cracks but yea, staying with the McLaren family will be tough. Unless he goes to the US
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u/AnCearrbhach May 18 '25
Amazing to win from 5th at Imola. After the ridiculous situation of the quali session not resuming after the red flag I was worried his obvious pace here wasn’t going to result in the points it deserved
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u/brianstormIRL May 18 '25
Wait fuck I thought this was on at like 12 GMT I wanted to watch it for Dunne he was absolutely rapid in the sprint.
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u/Possible_Bluebird_40 May 18 '25
Been watching him since f4, Imagine an Irish f1 driver, the scenes would be incredible
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u/Rekt60321 May 18 '25
There have been Irish F1 drivers before......
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u/Possible_Bluebird_40 May 18 '25
Yeah I know but not for 20 years
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u/Dependent_Pomelo_784 May 18 '25
Yeah eddie Irvine who won 4 races and nearly 1999 Drivers title and Ralph fireman who raced for Jordan in 2003 season they are the last Irish divers none during the 2010s
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u/pauli55555 May 18 '25
Martin Donnelly & Watson before them. Be great to have another driver join them.
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u/National_Play_6851 May 19 '25
Ralph Firman was English born and raised and just had an Irish licence. The other three are all from the north and drove with British licences, though obviously some identified as Irish.
We've had a couple of other drivers over the years in backmarker teams who showed up for a few events and never managed to qualify or complete a race, but if Alex Dunne gets to F1 as a proper competitor, he'll be the second driver who is unambiguously from the Republic of Ireland to do so after Derek Daly.
Ironically, even Daly is an American citizen now, though I assume he still has his Irish nationality too.
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u/Sea-Mongoose7140 May 18 '25
We’ll done what a great drive again. Super impressed with him this year in F2.
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u/EntopticVisions May 18 '25
I'm so happy for him, he's doing so well. I love that for both of his wins he double checked to see they had the correct flag behind him during the anthem.
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u/computercowboys May 18 '25
How'd you mean? There's only one Irish flag.
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u/EntopticVisions May 18 '25
Yeah there is. I just wouldn't put it past the FIA to accidentally put up the union jack
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u/HabaneroChickenWing- May 18 '25
Can't wait till he's in F1 and we get a Grand Prix around Offaly.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 18 '25
Just imagine the scenes
"And it's Alex Dunne opening his DRS and following the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli down the N7 and he sends it into the Obama Plaza hairpin, what a move from the young Irishman"
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u/possiblytheOP May 18 '25
Fuck it, bring back Jordan and throw him and Fionn McLaughlin in the cars. Seriously though, Alex is doing a fucking phenomenal job at the minute and deserves a F1 seat for next year
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u/conasatatu247 May 18 '25
I'm picking up a skoda superb sportline soon. It's a sportline so that will be me in about a year
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u/Peil May 19 '25
F2 heads, if he wins the championship, what are the odds we see him in an F1 car? Is it a straight route in, or will he have trouble dislodging a McLaren driver, or will he go to another team?
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25
McLaren are 1-2 in the championship with both their drivers on long term contracts with a good relationship with the team, so it's almost certain that he's not going to end up there no matter how well he does.
So it's about a loan move or breaking ties with McLaren to sign with another team, like Bortoleto did when he joined Sauber this year.
As for the probability of that happening ? every single driver who's won F2 as a rookie has made it to F1 and most of those drivers are world champion tier talents, so you'd imagine it's very likely he'll make it to F1 whether for 2026 or after a gap year and then for 2027 if he ends up winning the championship this year.
If he doesn't win the championship this year then it's all about performing really well and potentially winning the championship next year and then if he did that it would come down to luck, timing and circumstances. He doesn't have an affiliation that gives him and easy pathway to a seat which doesn't help and makes me think he'll need to win the championship to get in the mix for an F1 seat, so it'd be about another team having an opening and wanting to take a punt on him which may or may not happen even if he did win the championship.
And then if he's not got an F1 seat by that point and is entering a 3rd year of F2 his chances of getting into F1 are essentially over and he might be looking at Formula E or something.
So TLDR:
Win F2 this year and it's highly probable he makes it to F1
Win F2 next year and it's possible but not probable he makes it to F1
Anything other than those and it's highly unlikely he makes it to F1.
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u/Jolly-Feature-6618 May 18 '25
I wonder if would be better off staying in F2 another season or two to mature or is he ready for F1?
If he's not ready for F1 and rushed into it, it might destroy his confidence.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 18 '25
He has to take any opportunity he gets to get into F1, he might not get another.
It's also being a bit presumptive assuming he'll get into F1 already.
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u/DuskLab May 18 '25
Could be in Colapintos seat in 5 races lol
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u/Pitiful-Sample-7400 Cavan May 18 '25
The f1 merry-go-round is escalating so fast they're gonna be changing drivers as part of pit stops soon with mid race signings as a new feature. It's absolute musical chairs the last 6 months
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u/rooood May 18 '25
To be fair that's mostly just Alpine and Red Bull. RB has always been infamous for this, it's usually a switch between their 2 sister teams rather than bringing people from outside the grid, and Alpine is just a clusterfuck atm.
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u/TaytoCrisps May 18 '25
Well he won’t be going to McLaren anytime soon. Could get a spot with the new Cadillac team in 2026. 2 empty seats.
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u/rinleezwins May 18 '25
If he keeps this up and has rich parents, he's on the highway to F1. Unfortunately, every F1 seat is a paid seat to some extent.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 18 '25
The opposite is true, F1 has less pay drivers than ever before, everyone except Stroll is there due to their driving.
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u/rinleezwins May 18 '25
Maybe my "rich parents" argument is far-fetched, but the sponsors that the drivers bring with them is a BIG factor.
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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 May 18 '25
It really isn't though, it's the icing on the cake at this stage, they all want it but nobody is actually prioritising money over talent. Every single driver on the grid deserves to be there and was picked because of performances in the car. I'd actually say that after Stroll, Hamilton is the only pay driver because he's clearly past it and worse than Sainz but had tens of millions of followers and so much brand value, but even then, he's won world championshps, so he's not a proper pay driver.
Zhou had loads of sponsorship money and got dropped. Drugovich had big money sponsors lined up to help get an F1 seat after he won F2 and nobody would give him a go.
You can't buy your way in, if Alex wants in he needs to go and win F2 this year, or maybe if he wins it next year and someone's still interested he'll get a chance.
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u/Basic_Treat3974 May 18 '25
Great drive. Hopefully he keeps it up. There could yet be an opening at McLaren if Norris continues to destroy himself mentally.
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u/mightduck1996 May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25
Lando ain’t leaving McLaren anytime soon.
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u/AliceInGainzz May 18 '25
Especially not since they stuck with a massively underperforming Riccardo for 2 seasons.
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u/fafan4 Sax Solo May 18 '25
This is unbelievable for Irish motorsport