McLaren junior Alex Dunne won his second Feature race of the 2025 F2 season at the Imola GP as the Irishman reclaimed the lead in the Drivers’ Championship, and it was a topic that came up in the post-race print media session of their F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella.
The 19-year-old joined the McLaren junior programme before the F3 Imola round in 2024. While he showed a lot of speed in Formula 3, incidents and errors from MP Motorsport masked his true potential. Dunne had to settle for P14 in the standings. He is taking valuable lessons from that.
Having made the jump to F2 for 2025 with Rodin Motorsport, Alex Dunne has done a stellar job. Two wins in Features, along with a podium in the F2 Jeddah Sprint, sees him hold a 6-point lead heading over Luke Browning into the Monaco GP weekend.
The programme by McLaren has been successful very recently, with their former junior Gabriel Bortoleto joining Sauber for the 2025 F1 season. The 2024 F2 champion is impressing against Nico Hülkenberg.
McLaren F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella discusses Alex Dunne and his fine start to the 2025 F2 season
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris currently sit 1-2 in the F1 Drivers’ Championship as McLaren have started 2025 with five wins from the first seven Grands Prix. The reigning Constructors’ Champions have also got the Australian and Brit tied down to multi-year deals.
Following his first F2 win in Bahrain, Alex Dunne explained the additional support he is getting McLaren from 2025 as he looks to achieve his dream of racing in F1.
When asked about the growth of Alex Dunne over the last 12 months, Andrea Stella heaped praise on the Irishman, his talent, and everyone involved in the McLaren driver development programme.
“Well, Alex [Dunne] is giving us no headache. He’s giving us quite a lot of satisfaction for his results, his own development.
“We like he’s attitude and speed while in the car, we like his attitude and speed while at the simulator and the way he collaborates with the engineers.
“And I think we have seen already last year with Gabriel Bortoletto, I think even this year with Alex we see great progress.
“So, I would like to praise the work of everyone involved in the driver development programme at McLaren, because I think what we have put in place is in condition to support the driver’s development.
“But obviously, this wouldn’t be successful without the talent, and Alex belongs to one of the most talented drivers.”
