Irish teenager Alex Dunne starred on his Formula 1 practice debut at the Austrian Grand Prix for McLaren with a performance that may have put him in contention for a 2026 seat on the grid.

Dunne replaced Lando Norris in first practice on Friday as McLaren chose to tick off one of their four mandatory sessions where a rookie must participate.

The 19-year-old made the most of his opportunity and took a hugely impressive fourth place, less than a tenth of a second behind championship leader Oscar Pisatri in the same machinery.

Usually, the rookie drivers are a long way off the pace and finish the session near the back, so Dunne’s performance was eye-catching.

“I want to say a massive thank you, you made a little boy’s dream come true. This is definitely the best day of my life,” Dunne said over the radio as he made his way back to the garage at the end of the session.

“Thank you everyone for letting me do this and thanks to Lando as well for trusting me with his car. It means a lot.”

Who is Alex Dunne?

Born on November 11, 2005 in Offaly, Dunne quickly rose through the karting ranks and jumped at the opportunity to drive in Formula 4 when he turned 15 – the minimum age you can drive at that level.

He took pole position and a podium on his single-seater debut in F4, then dominated the British F4 season in 2022 as interest increased.

Dunne was runner-up to Kimi Antonelli in Italian F4 in the same year, then finished second in the GB3 Championship in 2023. Although he struggled to consistently shine in F3, McLaren signed him in May 2024 and Dunne made the step up to F2 with Rodin Motorsport this year.

He was not expected to be a title challenger but finds himself leading the standings ahead of this weekend’s races in Austria after two impressive feature race wins in Bahrain and Imola, plus two other podiums.

However, he was deemed at fault for a Turn 1 incident in Monaco’s Feature Race against Victor Martins which caused a pile-up. Dunne was heavily criticised on social media, which led to him deleting apps on his phone.

“I got a lot of stuff after Monaco, normally I’m not someone who reads things and gets annoyed by them,” he said.

“But I think an hour after the race, I deleted social media off my phone because I’ve never received such bad messages in my life. A lot of the stuff I got was really bad and quite upsetting, to be honest.”

Dunne bounced back from a grid penalty for the Monaco incident by flying through the field from 19th to second place in the F2 Sprint in Spain and took fifth in the feature race to retain his championship lead going into round seven in Austria this weekend.

Dunne ‘very pleased’ with F1 outing

McLaren ran Dunne on the hard tyres for the majority of first practice in Austria before fitting on a relatively fresh set of softs for the last part of the session, where Dunne popped up to fourth.

“It was not a bad lap. It was not new soft tyres too, so there are a lot of positives to take,” said Dunne, who will return to action in the F2 Sprint on Saturday at 1.10pm, live on Sky Sports F1.

“Of course, if I got in the car again I would get quicker and quicker. I put the lap together pretty well and put what I learned from the session to maximise what I needed to learn. The team helped me massively to prepare for this, so that made it a lot easier for me.

“Regardless of the performance and pace at the end, I’m just more pleased it was a clean session. There were no mishaps, I didn’t get in anyone’s way.

“All the stuff we needed to test at the beginning all went smoothly and to plan. From that side I was very happy.”

Norris impressed by Dunne

Norris sat on the pit wall watching his car being driven in first practice but his loss of track time had no impact, partly thanks to the smoothness with which Dunne conducted his work.

The British driver ended up quickest by 0.157s from Piastri in Practice Two, and credited Dunne for the feedback he had provided.

“The car felt good from the off,” Norris said. “Alex gave good feedback this morning after FP1 and he was on the pace straightaway, so it was good to see.”

Team principal Andrea Stella explained Dunne tested McLaren’s upgrades for Austria and also completed some rake work as planned.

“In all this, Alex has been quite diligent and impressive. And then he also had the chance to show some speed and, no surprise, he is a fast driver,” said Stella.

“I think we need to be a bit careful looking at the lap times, because his came later on in the stint when the fuel was down.

“But I think encouraging and impressive in terms of Alex himself, and also I think a good session for McLaren.”

Chandhok: McLaren should make a deal with Cadillac

Both Norris and Piastri have contracts for 2026, so there is no room at McLaren for Dunne at the moment.

However, he can take encourage from the path of Ferrari academy product Oliver Bearman, who impressed in practice sessions for Haas and standing in for Ferrari before being given a seat with the former.

While nothing is certain in F1, as the multiple changes to seats we’ve witnessed in the opening stages of this season showed, the most obvious opportunity for Dunne could be with the sport’s incoming 11th team, Cadillac, who join the grid in 2026.

Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok thinks McLaren should look to find a way of loaning Dunne out.

“If I was McLaren now, I’d be trying to do a deal with Cadillac or someone like that to farm him out,” Chandhok said.

“Based on everything he’s shown. He’s the leader of the F2 championship. They’ve seen potential in testing, we are seeing it publicly today.

“You want to find him a seat somewhere to build up some racing experience. I’d be trying to get him a deal somewhere else for a period of time.

“Farm him out, have him on some sort of a tether that they can pull him back in, in the way that Mercedes have done with George Russell in the past.”

Sky Sports F1’s Austrian GP schedule

Saturday June 28
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15pm: Austrian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Austrian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: AUSTRIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday June 29
7.25am: F3 Feature Race
8.55am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Austrian GP build-up*
2pm: THE AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Austrian GP reaction*
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Next up for the 2025 Formula 1 season is a return to Europe for the Austrian Grand Prix, which is live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.