Ireland's Alex Dunne, who claimed his first victory in the FIA Formula Two series in Bahrain last month, has been testing a McLaren Formula One car at the Zandvoort seaside circuit in the Netherlands.
Dunne competed in Formula Three last year but made the step up to F2 for 2025, racing with the Rodin team. He's also part of the McLaren F1 driver development programme.
The 19-year-old from Offaly, managed by his father Noel, is also the McLaren Formula E Team's Reserve and Development Driver for the 2025 Formula E World Championship.
Formula E is for electrically powered single-seater racing cars.
Bening entrusted to test a McLaren F1 this week is another rung on the ladder in Dunne’s development - though the jump up to F1 is a massive one.
Indeed, Ireland hasn’t had a driver in the F1 paddock since Eddie Irvine, who drove for the likes of Jordan and Ferrari. Before that, Derek Daly raced for Williams in 1982.
Currently McLaren have their two drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, under long-term contracts. The pair came home first and second respectively in the Miami Grand Prix last Sunday.
Thus, the chances of Dunne getting to the F1 grid any time soon, at least with McLaren, would appear to be slim.
Norris is under contract until the end of 2027, with Piastri signing a multi-year contract extension to stay with the British team until the end of the 2028 season.
McLaren have had a huge upturn in fortunes in F1 recently after years in the doldrums. Piastri now leads the World Championship - an unimaginable scenario for the team only a few years ago.
"Relatively, you can say I am close, but, realistically, I'm not even close to F1 yet."
For now, Dunne will have to be content with racing in F2 and combining that with F1 testing as he has been doing in Zandvoort this week.
There may a chance for Dunne to drive a McLaren at a race weekend as F1’s rookie rules for this year state that each team must give over a minimum of at least four free practice session to junior drivers, with Norris and Piastri required to hand over a minimum of two sessions each.
McLaren has yet to reveal its plans for its free practice appearances in 2025.
"I think, naturally, motorsport is a performance-led thing, and I think, if I keep on going in the direction we’re going at the moment, then I don’t see why the chance of driving a Formula 1 car is impossible," Dunne told PlanetF1.com.
"I’m the only driver, obviously, in F2 as part of McLaren, so that will be something hopefully in my favour.
"I think, if I just keep on focusing on myself… there’s no point in me thinking about Formula One right now. I’m not an F1 driver.
"Relatively, you can say I am close, but, realistically, I’m not even close to F1 yet.
"So, there’s no point in me thinking about F1, I just focus on what I can do in F2 and, if I keep on performing at a high level, then hopefully the opportunity will arise."
Having started his career at the age of eight in garting, Dunne made his single-seater debut in the 2021 Spanish F4 Championship racing for the Irish-owned Pinnacle Motorsport outfit run by Kildare’s John O’Hara.
The following year Dunne was crowned the British F4 champion as well as the Italian F4 Championship vice-champion while in 2023 the Irish teenager was the vice-champion in the GB3 Championship with five wins to his credit that season.
As well as continuing his development with the support of the McLaren Driver Development programme in 2024, he then competed in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with MP Motorsport, before making the step up to Formula Two in 2025.
Dunne now lies in fourth place in F2, the feeder series to F1, after three rounds. The next round of the series takes place in Imola on 17-19 May.
