Alex Dunne heads into the F2 Belgian GP weekend on a high following a successful feature race at the British GP. Dunne stormed to his fifth podium finish, securing P2 in the tricky Silverstone conditions. Round 9 at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit leads to the second half of his strong F2 season.
The Rodin Motorsport driver expressed his enthusiasm heading into the weekend, stating: “I’m pretty excited. Spa is a track that has gone pretty well for me in the past, in junior formulas and last year in F3, the pace in quali was strong as well.”
Confident moving forward
The McLaren junior currently lies third in the Formula 2 Drivers’ Championship with 108 points. With only 14 points separating the top three drivers, the championship remains immensely tight.
As Dunne has had quite the whirlwind of a season, but remained strong throughout, the Rodin driver understandably remains confident him and the team can perform at Spa. The Irishman expressed his feelings heading into every race weekend, saying: “I have never really had a different feeling going into a weekend this year, every weekend has gone well. There has never been a weekend where we were left scratching our heads, wondering why we don’t have the pace for this.“
“Every weekend, the pace has always been good, so I am just feeling the same as I have every weekend. I don’t really have any doubts that we won’t be able to carry it on, it’s just about being there every weekend.“
Success at Spa
Last time out at Spa, Dunne was still a Formula 3 driver with MP Motorsport. He managed to have a strong qualifying performance, securing second place. However, with the unpredictability and demands of the circuit, the McLaren junior finished 10th in the feature race.
This weekend becomes his first time around Spa as a Formula 2 driver with Rodin and Dunne will undoubtably attempt to have a better weekend this time around. The McLaren junior was asked what it takes to be successful at Spa, in which he responded: “I think it’s a high commitment track. It leans towards being comfortable in the car and feeling comfortable in your surroundings.“
He continued on to explain more in detail, saying: “It’s about knowing exactly where to brake, how much speed you can carry, and I think that’s something as a driver I have always felt comfortable with, being closer to the edge, so I think that’s one of the more important things.”
The championship fight
While Dunne has had an impressive campaign in F2, there have been a few disappointments as well. One of them being his disqualification from the sprint race in Austria. While the disqualification did impact his points, as he originally got a second place finish, the Rodin driver remains secure.
Speaking about the championship and the disqualification, Dunne stated: “The Championship is close, probably closer than I would like, but it’s been going very well. Ultimately, the disqualification in Austria threw a spanner in the works and made things harder than it should be.”
“But as I’ve said, we’ve been right there every weekend. I am pretty comfortable in saying that we’ve had the pace to either be on the podium or to win. It’s never been worse than that, which is always a comfortable feeling.“
“When you can go into a weekend knowing that the car is where you need to it be, realistically every weekend the car has been how I wanted it to be or very close and you can’t ask for more of that as a driver, and mentally that puts you in a nice place.”
Focused on consistency, not points
The rookie has secured two victories in F2 thus far. While the Rodin driver admits it would be ideal to add more victories to his name, he remains more focused on being consistent every race weekend. Dunne expressed: “I think adding a couple more wins to the tally would be nice, but I am not really going into the weekends thinking I have to win. If I finish second, third, fourth, win, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be happier if I win but I think I am not solely focusing on that, it’s just about having good points every weekend.”
The McLaren junior continued on to explain the affect the double header had on the championship, stating: “The main thing for me in the last two weekends, the double header, I got disqualified in Austria, but both races it would have been harder for me to finish higher than second. So damage limitation was important, because both drivers ahead of me are right there in the Championship.”
Heading into the weekend, Dunne hopes to continue his strong momentum this season at the Belgian GP.
