Racing driver Alex aims for fast track into Formula One
Young Irish star needs to raise multi-million euro budget
IRELAND’S hottest Formula One prospect in decades will have to raise millions of euros while maintaining top form on the racing track to realise his dream of making it to the pinnacle of the sport.
Alex Dunne, who recently turned 18, has dazzled at every turn of his fledgling career – most recently impressing in his first ever Formula Three race in Macau – and is tipped to eventually take one of only 20 seats on the Formula One circuit.
But the talented young Irishman still doesn’t know what 2024 will hold, because to the massive financial challenges of competing in motorsport.
Coming from a more modest background than many of his competitors means an annual scrap for sponsorship, meticulous budgeting and a top-class performance in every race.
He said there are ‘definitely some scenarios where having big pockets helps’ in a sport in which many competitors come from very wealthy backgrounds.
Alex told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I think for the drivers who don’t have a lot of money – that’s kind of what my scenario is – I need to be performing all the time, getting really good results, and that’s what will give me the best opportunity. Whereas for the drivers that maybe have a lot more money, it’s not as important.’
The teenager, who is from Clonbullogue in Co. Offaly, has ‘a lot of loyal sponsors’ without whom he says he wouldn’t be racing, and
‘I need to be performing, getting good results’
is hoping he is talented enough that a racing team will take him on for below the usual rate.
But he estimates it could take as much as €15m to pay his way all the way to Formula One.
‘For example, F3 and F2 are the support races for Formula One – they race on the same weekends as F1 and on the same tracks. And F3 is close to probably €1.5m for one season, and F2 is close to €2.5m. So it’s pretty steep,’ he said.
Alex said the annual uncertainty was ‘kind of how it’s been since I started racing’ so he is ‘pretty comfortable with that feeling’, though he added it was ‘probably something that my dad’s a bit more stressed about than I am.’
His father Noel was a racing driver too, winning two Irish Formula Ford F1600 championships in his time, and has coached and accompanied Alex in the pursuit of his ‘goal’ to be Formula One world champion.
‘We’ll always have a bit of a rivalry,’ Alex laughed. ‘I’ll always take the mick out of him and say, “I’m a better driver than you now.” But I’ll give it to him that he was a better driver in his day.’
The younger Dunne hopes to be on the F1 starting grid by 2027 or 2028 and is on track to realise his ambition.
‘Whenever I go to F3, if I can win it in my first year that’ll mean I’ll be able to go to F2 sooner instead of having to do a second year,’ he said. ‘So it kind of has to be a perfect scenario, but if I can manage to be there by 2027, 2028, that would be ideal,’ he said.
He won the 2022 F4 British Championship in style, breaking the record for the most wins ever in a single season – an accomplishment he is particularly proud of given that past competitors include
current F1 stars Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (whose father, incidentally, has a net worth of around £200m).
Macau late last year also ranks among his best achievements.
‘I got the call up two weeks before the race,’ he revealed. ‘I had never raced in F3 before. I did one day of practice in the car, so I had very little experience. And to finish the first race second and qualify sixth – it’s almost unheard of for a rookie.’
It was also the youngster’s first time on a street track, which was ‘a
pretty cool feeling’, he said. ‘I remember the first time I came out of the pits and I was driving flat out down the straight so close to the wall. You’re doing a qualifying lap knowing that if you make a mistake, you’re into the wall. So it’s a really, really, really fine line on the
limit, but it was probably the most enjoyable experience I’ve had in my racing career so far.’
Alex has been home-schooled by his mother for most of secondary school, owing to the demands of travelling around Europe to race.
He said he has ‘definitely missed out on doing stuff with friends, going to parties or whatever’, but is confident he did so ‘for a good reason’ and has trained hard.
‘Physically, the F3 car I raced in Macau is quite a big step up from what I’ve raced previously,’ Alex explained. ‘The g-forces are harder on your neck and your core and your shoulders. The car has a much bigger braking power, so you need to hit the brake pedal a lot harder, which is harder on your legs. Then, depending on the car and team, the steering wheel can be quite heavy to turn, so you need to have strong arms as well.’
His talent has seen him picked for the Ferrari Driver Academy scouting camp.
Former F1 driver Derek Daly, an Irishman who participated in 64 Grands Prix in the 1970s and 1980s, said Dunne ‘definitely has Formula One potential’, calling him ‘probably the most talented young Irish driver in the past 25 years’.
Mr Daly told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Alex has the potential to be an ambassador for Ireland on the world stage. What he did in Macau was world-class. What separates him from everybody else is, when you take him out of his own back yard and drop him into race tracks across the globe, he’s able to step up and perform like a champion.’
The last of the five men to have competed in Formula One under a tricolour was Ralph Firman for Jordan in 2003.
‘If you make a mistake, you’re into the wall’