Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne secured his fourth podium of the 2026 F2 season at the Monaco GP Feature Race, finishing P2 behind race winner Nikola Tsolov. The Irishman continues to chase his first victory of the year, having shown consistent front-running pace since the first round in Melbourne. However, a combination of misfortune and mistakes has cost him a significant amount of points across the four rounds so far.
Speaking in the post-Feature press conference, Dunne spoke to Pit Debrief and other media outlets as he reflected on his race.
“Pretty tricky. I think, to be honest, when I came out of the pit lane, my engineer said it’s going to be close with Tsolov, I thought he made a mistake or something, I was saying, there’s no way I’ve come out in front. I didn’t realise how much time you actually lost on the cold tyres.”
“And then when I was in front of him through T2 and T3, it was like I was driving on ice. I tried my best to keep him behind, but it was nearly impossible. I think it was very, very difficult. So it was tricky.”
He added: “But in the end, I’m glad that I managed to keep the soft runners who had stayed out a long time behind me. Because I think if they managed to get past, then my race would have been very, very difficult. And I probably would have got jumped by, I think it was Kush [Maini] who did the alternative strategy or went a bit longer.”
“So, yeah, it was tricky. But in the end, I think to come away with P2 and keep the cars behind me, I was happy.”
Remaining consistent “the goal” for rest of 2026 F2 season
Having scored two Feature Race podiums in the last two rounds, Dunne said his priority for the remainder of the season will be consistency. By staying out of trouble and delivering strong well-executed weekends, he hopes that it will be enough to put himself in contention for the title.
“Yeah, that’s the goal. I think, to be honest, today was a pretty boring race. But I think in the future, if we can have more boring races, that would be a good thing. Just to stay out of trouble.”, Dunne said.
“I think just keep our nose clean and just pick up the points is all I’m trying to do. I think there’s no point going into every weekend trying really hard to put it on pole in the race, I think if we can just be in the top five all the time, all the way until the end of the year, then that should score pretty good points.”
“Nearly impossible” to overtake around Monaco
When asked whether he had considered attempting an overtake in the early stages of the race, Dunne explained that the risks outweigh the rewards, especially when racing on a tight street circuit like Monaco.
Dunne said: “No, not really. I think here it’s very, very difficult to get. To be honest, if you look at yesterday, for example, in the sprint race, some of us were driving like 10 seconds a lap slower than a push lap at some points.”
“Even then, the cars behind still couldn’t get past. I think it kind of shows how difficult it really is to overtake here. No matter what you do, it’s nearly impossible, to be honest. I think if you go for a move, you have to be super committed.”
“Either it’s going to pay off or you’re going to end up in a crash. To be honest, I think what you gain from a move here is not really worth it.”
Dunne: Lot of “patience” learnt since first F2 Monaco outing
During his rookie F2 season last year, Dunne’s Monaco weekend ended in disappointment after he secured pole position but crashed into the barriers on the opening lap in an incident with Victor Martins, triggering a significant pile-up behind them.
However, one year on, the Irishman reflected that he has since learned the value of patience, recognising that he does not always need to push for perfection.
“I think probably the patience is very important. I think looking back at last year being on pole, after having a difficult start in that race, I went into Turn 1 thinking of what can I do to keep the lead. Where I think now if I was in the same position, I would think, let’s just try to come out in 2nd, 3rd, whatever, and score a couple of points.”
“I think realistically, going into every weekend last year, it was always let’s do our best to put on pole, let’s do our best to win the feature race, where now I just go out and where we end up in qualifying is where we end up, and then we try to move forward in the races, or we try and hang on to wherever we are if we’re right at the front.”
“I think it’s just about, we just need points every weekend, I think no matter how little or how big they are, you just need to bring home the points every weekend because I think even the little ones, they always add up towards the end of the year. So I think we didn’t probably quite put that into place at the beginning of the year, but now we’re starting to build a little bit more momentum.”
“So I think in comparison to last year, of course I really wanted to win, and to be on pole again this year would have been really nice, but still to come away with second is great.”
Struggles with tyre warmup
During the Feature Race, several drivers struggled to bring their tyres up to temperature, which was the reason that caught polesitter Rafael Câmara out. Echoing similar sentiments to Tsolov, he explained that the short layout of the circuit, combined with the early start time of the race, played a role in how difficult it was to generate tyre temperature.
“Yeah, I think it’s very similar to what Nikola [Tsolov] said. I think it’s a very short lap. Also, the race, in comparison to some others, is very early in the morning. I think if we were to go and do this exact same race at the time of the sprint race, bringing the tyres in would be a lot easier because it’s way warmer at 2 or 3 p.m. in the day.”
“And then also, there’s no long combined G corners. I think if we were to go to Barcelona next week, for example, Turn 3 already is a long high-speed corner where you put a lot of load and a lot of G through the tyres, and that builds the core and the surface temp a lot quicker than pretty much the whole lap here.”
“So I think it’s just the nature of the track and the way the corners are.”, Dunne said.
Alpine F1 “pretty happy” with season so far
The 20 year-old was part of the McLaren Driver Development Programme before departing at the end of the 2025 season. However, ahead of his 2026 F2 campaign, the Irishman subsequently joined the Alpine Driver Academy, in hopes of achieving his Formula 1 dream.
When asked about Alpine’s expectations and their assessment of his season so far, Dunne explained: “Yeah, they’re pretty happy so far. I think the ins and outs details I’ll obviously keep to myself, but so far the feedback I’ve gotten has been nothing but good, which is nice. I think working with everyone, it’s a second year for me, but with a different F1 team.”
“I’m still learning and still understanding the different ways that they go about things and the different ways they work with drivers and things like that, but so far, so good.”
Dunne: “We’re always there or thereabouts”
When asked by Pit Debrief what has changed at Rodin Motorsport that has made the team so competitive at every round so far, Dunne noted that while they have not necessarily maximised the car’s full potential, a strong baseline for their setup has provided a solid foundation from which they have been able to build on.
“Well, I won two feature races by this time last year. If we had made progress with the car, we haven’t made very good use of it.”, he joked.
“I don’t think it’s really changed a whole lot, to be honest. I think we made very good progress from the beginning of last year to the middle of the year with the car.”
“And then I think from that point on to now, it’s just kind of been fine-tuning the baseline, let’s say. So I think we have a pretty good base for all the different tracks now. And then we kind of just fine-tune it depending on different track conditions and things like that.”
Although he did not believe Rodin had the outright quickest car in Monaco, Dunne explained that the unpredictable nature of F2 is part of what makes the championship so exciting, as strong results are not always limited to the obvious frontrunners.
“So I think this weekend, I don’t think we were necessarily the quickest. I think we were very strong in quali. But I think in terms of race pace, I think Niko [Tsolov] and Rafa [Câmara] were probably a little bit quicker than us. So we need to have a look at why necessarily that was. But we’re always there or thereabouts. I think it is going to change through the year.”
“To be honest, I think the great thing about F2 is how close everyone is. You know, DAMS, Campos, Rodin, Invicta. Everyone is there or thereabouts every weekend. I think there’s always the obvious ones who maybe have a little bit of an upper hand here and there. But it is relatively close from one weekend to the next, which is great to see.”
“Making a move would have been a bit optimistic” — Dunne on attempting a move
“I mean, it’s Monaco, so I think even if I was two or three seconds a lap quicker, making a move would have been a bit optimistic, I think.”, Dunne said.
“The only opportunity really to gain a place on track, let’s say, was keeping Nikola behind after the pits when I was on cold tyres, but it was too difficult.”
On a circuit where overtaking opportunities are notoriously limited, Dunne believes Rodin maximised what they could achieve.
“So, I think you can also look at it in one way, that maybe if I had kept him behind me, then Rafa [Câmara] might have still won the race, because Nikola was able to put him under pressure in Turn 1 with being on warm tyres, where I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I was still on cold tyres and managed to keep him behind me. So, I think we maximised what we could do today.”
Dunne on his fellow championship contenders
Despite leading the championship for several rounds last year, Dunne ultimately saw the title slip away in the latter stages of the season. Reflecting on how the championship battle is likely to evolve over the coming rounds, he said: “I think, you know, it’s always going to change. And I think if I look back at last year, I was leading the championship halfway through, and in the end I finished fifth and quite far off the lead. So, I think it can definitely change a lot through the year.”
“Of course, I would say it’s quite normal and common that I think there’s a group of drivers that will always be there, let’s say, and I think that’s not necessarily going to change.”
He added: “You might have one or two weekends where it does, based on strategy and different things. But I think on just pure, consistent, raw pace, it’s going to always be kind of the same guys. I think that’s kind of normal. And all of us expect that as well.”
“But, you know, through the year, with points, getting unlucky, whatever it may be, it can still change a whole lot in the championship order. But I think in terms of pace and who’s going to always be at the sharp end, it’ll always be quite similar.”
