Irish racing driver
Alexander Dunne (born 11 November 2005) is an Irish racing driver who most recently competed in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship with MP Motorsport. He previously won the 2022 F4 British Championship, and was the 2023 GB3 runner-up with Hitech.
He is a member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme and the reserve and development driver for McLaren Formula E Team.
Racing career.
Karting.
Dunne began karting at the age of eight, taking a number of victories in local competitions. He would then progress to national competitions in 2015, winning the Motorsport Ireland 'IRL' and '0' Plates and also taking home the Ironside Trophy. That year he would also make his first competitive appearance outside of Ireland, racing in the Super 1 National Championship in the United Kingdom. Following two years of competing on the British Isles, Dunne started racing in mainland Europe in 2018. He would stay in European karting until 2020, with his highlight being winning the WSK Champions Cup in 2019.
Formula 4.
2021.
Dunne made his single-seater racing debut in 2021, racing for Pinnacle Motorsport in the F4 Spanish Championship. His season started out in positive fashion, as he scored a pole position on debut in Spa-Francorchamps. Despite having fallen back to fifth owing to a poor start, finished third in his first ever race. Following the round, Dunne would only score twice in the next two rounds that he competed in. Following the Portimão round, Dunne and the team parted ways, leaving the Irishman 16th in the overall standings with 30 points at the end of the season.
It was announced in September of the same year that Dunne would be joining US Racing as part of their ADAC F4 Championship line-up. At his first round at the Hockenheimring, the Irish driver had an impressive debut, picking up two second places. His next appearance at the track yielded a pair of pole positions, although that round brought a retirement and two fourth places. He finished eighth in the standings with 76 points, beating a number of full-time competitors.
2022.
At the beginning of 2022, Dunne competed in the F4 UAE Championship for Hitech GP in preparation for his European campaign. He would achieve his first ever win in car racing during the third at the Dubai Autodrome through unusual circumstances, as, during a red flag, all drivers bar Dunne parked up in the pitlane instead of the start/finish straight, giving them all a five-second penalty. Despite being overtaken by Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the restart, the Irishman remained closely behind the Italian to inherit the victory. After a third place rostrum during the third Dubai round, Dunne won another race during the third race of the final round at the Yas Marina Circuit, he would follow this up with a third place during the last race. Dunne finished sixth in the standings, having scored two wins, four podiums and 168 points.
For his European season, Dunne stayed with US Racing to compete in the Italian F4 Championship, partnering Kacper Sztuka, Marcus Amand, Pedro Perino and Nikhil Bohra. In the first round of the campaign at Imola, Dunne amassed a triple of podiums, having overtaken PHM Racing's Nikita Bedrin in the dying embers of Race 1 to pick up second place and having stormed to the front in Race 2, he held off a fast-charging Rafael Câmara until the checkered flag for the win. Despite losing control of the car in Race 3 after hitting a sausage kerb on lap one, the Irishman was able to recover to third. However, despite a podium at Misano and another one at Spa-Francorchamps, he would be shuffled out of the top two in the championship, being overtaken by Prema drivers Rafael Câmara and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Dunne returned to winning ways at the Red Bull Ring, taking two victories and an additional podium, thus narrowing the gap to his two competitors. However, despite three second-placed finishes in the remaining two events, Dunne would have to settle for second in the standings, with Antonelli having attained an unassailable lead during the season finale.
During the same year, Dunne also raced in the British F4 series with Hitech. He started his season out in commanding fashion, winning the pair of main races at the season opener at Donington Park, whilst taking second in the reversed-grid race. The following round at Brands Hatch would provide mixed results, as despite a dominant win in Race 1, Dunne ended up finishing out of the points in both other races. Round 3 at the Thruxton Circuit would once again bring success, with the Irishman winning races 1 and 3 and extending his championship lead, having experienced a hard battle with Carlin driver Ugo Ugochukwu on Saturday. Dunne once again won the opening race at the next round held at Oulton Park, but he would only finish third in Race 3, having lost out to Louis Sharp and Oliver Gray at the start. The Irish driver experienced a difficult start to the event in Croft, finishing seventh in Race 1, although Dunne was able to take advantage from a stall by poleman Georgi Dimitrov in Race 2 to take victory. In Sunday's main race, which Dunne started from tenth, he clawed his way back to third place by the checkered flag, with his closest championship rival Gray closing the gap between the pair by winning the race. After a less successful round at Knockhill, Dunne bounced back with a pair of victories in the main races at Snetterton and Thruxton respectively, thus setting a new record for most victories in a single British F4 season. At the penultimate round in Silverstone, Dunne finished on the podium in Race 1 despite being involved in a collision with Gray, and took another third place in the final race of the event. Despite missing the final round, instead having chosen to complete his campaign in Italian F4, Dunne was crowned champion on the final weekend, with his points gap having been insurmountable. Throughout the season, Dunne secured eleven wins, eleven poles, seventeen podiums and 412 points.
At the end of the season, Dunne took part in the F4 UAE Trophy Round with Hitech, finishing second and tenth in the races.
Formula Regional.
At the beginning of 2023, Dunne competed in the 2023 Formula Regional Middle East Championship with Hitech Grand Prix, for the final two rounds. However, he did not partake in any rounds.
GB3.
For the 2023 season, Dunne progressed to the GB3 Championship, returning to Hitech Grand Prix. Dunne began the season with solid points finishes in Oulton Park, and improved his pace in Silverstone with a fourth and sixth place. Dunne tasted success the next round in Spa-Francorchamps, where he clinched his first GB3 victories during Races 1 and 2. However, he only netted one podium in the following three rounds, in which he admitted that he had "difficult title hopes" after the Brands Hatch round. Dunne did bounce back during the penultimate round in Zandvoort where he claimed a double victory, closing the gap to leader Callum Voisin. Dunne notched up a third-place podium and another win in Donington Park, however he ultimately missed out on the title to Voisin by 18 points. Despite that, Dunne still finished runner-up in the standings with 466 points, having taken five wins all season.
Macau Grand Prix.
2023.
Dunne joined Hitech Pulse-Eight to make his debut at the 2023 Macau Grand Prix. Dunne impressed on his initial runs coming fifth in Q1, eventually leaving him in sixth for the qualifying race. He had a great start and moved to third early on in the qualification race, before overtaking Gabriele Minì on the safety car restart to finish second. However, misery would pile in the main race as he crashed out on the first lap, misjudging his braking point while trying to overtake Luke Browning for the lead.
2024.
Dunne returned to the Macau Grand Prix in 2024, albeit in Formula Regional machinery, with SJM Theodore Prema Racing. He qualified 18th due to an unavoidable crash, but improved in the main race, taking advantage of rivals' mishaps to finish in a respectable sixth place.
Formula 3.
Dunne joined MP Motorsport for the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship, completing the team's lineup alongside Red Bull juniors Kacper Sztuka and Tim Tramnitz. He scored points during the Bahrain opener, as Dunne moved up the order from 14th to finish ninth in the feature race. He scored more points in Melbourne with seventh place during the sprint race. In Imola, Dunne was set to qualify fifth; his first top 12 in qualifying but was disqualified due to a non-conformity with the front anti-roll bar links. He recovered a total of thirty places in both races, but did not score points. Another disappointing weekend followed in Monaco followed, where Dunne was eliminated in a multi-car collision during lap 1 of the sprint race. However, his big break came in the Barcelona sprint race, where Dunne secured his first podium in F3 with second place, having fought for the lead with Mari Boya. He had a solid feature race, improving two places to finish in seventh.
In Austria, Dunne had another good weekend, finishing fourth in the sprint despite a slight collision with Sebastián Montoya, and tenth in the feature race. However, Dunne experienced a bruising weekend in Silverstone, as he was involved in a collision with Charlie Wurz during the sprint, while he was an innocent bystander in a collision with Montoya and Joshua Dufek. Dunne also received a ten-place grid drop for Hungary for re-joining onto the track in an unsafe manner. Dunne secured a front row start in Spa-Francorchamps. In the feature race, Dunne dropped two places at the start, and a mistake into the gravel on the safety car restart further lost him places and he fell to tenth at the flag. He qualified on the front row once again for the Monza finale. He had a strong sprint race, carefully overtaking his rivals to finish fourth on the road, but was promoted to the rostrum after a penalty for Montoya. Dunne momentarily led the feature race for the first few laps, but eventually slipped down the order and finished fourth. Dunne finished 14th in the drivers' standings with 50 points, ahead of Sztuka but behind Tramnitz.
Formula 2.
Dunne took part in the post-season Formula 2 test in Abu Dhabi with Rodin Motorsport.
Formula One.
In September 2022, Dunne took part in a scouting camp conducted by the Ferrari Driver Academy. Ahead of the 2024 Imola Formula 3 round in May, Dunne was announced to be joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme.
Formula E.
In January 2025, Dunne was announced as the reserve and development driver for McLaren Formula E Team.
Personal life.
He is the son of Noel Dunne, a former racing driver who won the Irish Formula Ford F1600 series on two occasions.
References.
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