TEEN MACHINE
Offaly youngster Dunne is on the fast track to Formula One having caught the eye of the great Ralf Schumacher
IT is just before 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning, 10 days before Christmas. Most 16year-olds are sitting in a classroom, feeling bored. Not Alex Dunne. The Offaly youngster doesn’t lead the life of a typical teenager. Dunne has just returned from Germany, where he had been driving for Ralf Schumacher’s US Racing team in their Formula Four season.
Along with his father, Noel, he had just been working out plans for next year. The team were pretty happy with how Dunne raced in his first season. More often than not, he was the fastest rookie in the championship.
‘The season went alright,’ Alex says modestly. ‘Yeah, I had a pretty good year. I had a few pole positions, had the fastest lap a few times and a few podium finishes.’
Dunne’s modesty is masking just how well things went in 2021. Racing against more seasoned competitors, he was consistently clocking the fastest times in qualifying.
When he made his Formula Four debut as a 15-year-old, on the famed Spa-Francochamps circuit in Belgium (where Jordan secured their first Grand Prix win back in 1998), Dunne made an immediate impression, claiming pole and ending up on the podium. In Formula Four circles, they started talking about the speed of this Irish kid.
One of the stories of this sporting year has been how Formula 1 has become sexy again.
The sport is enjoying a serious spike in popularity, thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series and the heated rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton which kept viewers watching to that extraordinary final lap of the season.
To eventually mix in the glitz and glamour of Formula One remains the ultimate aspiration for Dunne, and the sense that he is on the right path, working this year with Schumacher in Formula 4.
‘It’s definitely cool to work with someone like Ralf. He is not always at the track but when he is, he’s been great, in offering advice. It is a great atmosphere and I really enjoy working with the team,’ Dunne says.
Dunne’s rise in the sport has been meteoric. He only started karting at nine years of age, when Noel, a former Irish motorsport champion, brought him to a track in Athboy, Co Meath. But a passion was sparked for Alex and his whole family bought into the dream.
While his mother Elizabeth is Alex’s teacher after it was decided in first year that he should be home-schooled to allow more time to travel, Noel acts as manager and mechanic. It is a real family affair.
‘We do this as a family. We have to, because it is 24/7. Everything is focused on getting Alex as far as he can go. I have always done his driving coaching, I am his biggest supporter but can also be his biggest critic,’ Noel explains. ‘We don’t have a blank cheque, like some of these other drivers trying to make it, so we have to put everything into this.
‘We haven’t had a family holiday in around six years, everything has just gone into Alex. Through the karting, we did that as a family but when you get to cars, it is a little different. You need some support.’
And they have sourced sponsorship for Alex to pursue his dream, through the likes of Harris Group. It makes things a little easier.
Dunne’s rise in motorsport has been meteoric. Having started karting in Ireland, they eventually went to England because it was a higher level of racing, before getting invited to Europe, which is the elite of F4, especially in Germany and Italy.
Dunne got the opportunity with US Racing after impressing in a two-day test drive at the Hockenheim track, with team principals Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar, another former F1 driver, taken aback by his speed and ability.
‘They both thought, “wow, this kid is fast’” Noel recalls. ‘When we did the two-day test, Alex was the quickest on the first day. He crashed on the second day but when the car got built back up, he was bang back on the pace again. I think that impressed them as well, to see his composure and mental strength.
‘Ralf and Gerhard said afterwards that this kid is fast, he has the spark and we want him to drive for us. It has been the same everywhere we went, people can see that Alex is fast.’
This season has given him plenty to build on, but it hasn’t been easy.
As well as making sure he doesn’t lag on his schoolwork, there is also gym sessions four times a week. And on race weeks, it usually means leaving their home in Offaly on Tuesday or Wednesday and heading for Germany. It is a hectic life, but it all feels worth it when Alex is on the track.
‘When you are on your qualifying lap and pushing your car to the limit, it is a great adrenaline rush,’ says Alex.
And Noel admits that himself and Elizabeth get the same rush watching their son from the stands, or pit lane.
Alex’s first season in the German F4 series has made people sit up and take notice. And it is from similar beginnings that current F1 drivers Mick Schumacher and Lando Norris set out on their path towards the top level of the sport. Noel and Alex are already looking ahead to next season, when he will race in Imola as part of the Italian F4 championship. Germany and Italy are considered the two most prestigious F4 series and provide good schooling for a career in motorsport. But they are already in talks about testing cars in 2023. That is the sort of forward planning needed to reach the top in this sport.
‘Getting to Formula One is the ultimate goal,’ Alex says. It is why he leads such an unconventional, if exciting, lifestyle. Not that of your typical Irish teenager. In his life so far, he has shown himself to faster than all his contemporaries. Next year will be another step up when he tests himself on the renowned Imola track. But as Alex Dunne has proven so far, he is more than capable of meeting any challenge.
‘IT’S COOL TO WORK WITH RALF, HE’S GREAT WITH ADVICE’