“IT’S A VERY, very, very horrible situation that Formula 1 has created,” says John Watson, “where there’s a surplus of talent and a total lack of seat availability. And Alex is really in the middle of all that.”
Watson, from Northern Ireland, won five Grand Prix and drove for McLaren in the 1970s and 80s. He does not think he would get the same opportunities if he was in his prime today.
“If I was starting, as I did in 1970, I wouldn’t make it into Formula 1.”
Ireland has not had a driver on the Formula 1 grid since Ralph Firman raced for Jordan in 2003. Alex Dunne is the closest anyone has come since.
At 20, the Offaly man is in his second season in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Rodin Motorsport, one step below F1. He spent his first year as a McLaren junior driver. This year, he is spending it in the Alpine Academy.
So what are his chances of making the final step?
With two rounds to go, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Dunne sits third on 189 points, 18 behind Brazil’s Rafael Câmara and 11 behind Nikola Tsolov. Each round offers 39 points. To leave Qatar in the lead, Dunne needs to outscore Câmara by 19 and Tsolov by 12.
Alex Dunne: has the speed but is there an opening? Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Perhaps the greater issue, though? A bottleneck in F1.
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The problem starts at the top. Fernando Alonso is 45. Lewis Hamilton is 41. “They’re not about to retire to make way for a youngster coming in,” says Watson.
Below them, seats are filled early and for years ahead. Dunne is an Alpine junior, and Alpine is full: Pierre Gasly is contracted until at least the end of 2028, and Franco Colapinto signed an extension in August covering 2027.
What is left is decided by the academies. Kimi Antonelli finished sixth in F2 in 2024, and is now closing in on the world title with Mercedes. “He stood out like a sore thumb,” says Watson. “Got picked up by Mercedes, put through Formula 2, didn’t have the best results, but they saw something in him.”
Arvid Lindblad finished one place behind Dunne in F2 last year. Red Bull had backed him since he was 13, and he was on the grid by March.
Dunne has never had that kind of patron. He joined McLaren’s programme in 2024 and got his first F1 practice session in Austria last year, the first Irish driver to take part in an F1 weekend in over two decades.
He finished fourth-fastest in Lando Norris’ car, 0.224 of a second off George Russell’s best lap, 0.069 behind Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren, and 0.333 quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
“I don’t know whether he was running on low fuel, soft tyres,” says Watson. “Nevertheless, I was really impressed.”
By the autumn he had left McLaren. By March he was at Alpine, a team that has been here before. Oscar Piastri won the F2 title as an Alpine junior in 2021 and spent the next year watching from the garage. He ran out of patience and left for McLaren.
On track, Dunne has done his part. A top-three finish in F2 would secure the Super Licence points he needs to race in F1.
“If he won the title, that would certainly increase his options,” says Watson. “But again, there’s really one seat I can see that’s currently available.”
So why not walk? On track, he has done his part. With two rounds left, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, he is on 189 points, 18 behind Brazil’s Rafael Câmara and 11 behind Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov, with 39 on offer at each round. A top-three finish would also secure the Super Licence points he needs to race in F1.
Options
“If he won the title, that would certainly increase his options,” says Watson. Then he lists them, and stops quickly.
Even the title guarantees little. Of the nine F2 champions since 2017, four went straight into an F1 seat. “Fornaroli won the championship in ’25,” says Watson. “He hasn’t got a Formula One drive. All he is is a McLaren reserve driver.”
Only a handful of 2027 seats remain open, and Dunne’s two title rivals are better placed for them than he is.
Câmara is a Ferrari junior, and Haas runs Ferrari engines. “Ferrari might say, take Câmara, because we’ll make sure you get the same engines as the factory,” says Watson.
And, indeed, since we spoke to Watson, Haas confirmed the signing of Câmara for the 2027 Formula 1 season.
Tsolov is a Red Bull junior. Watson puts it at “50-50″ that he takes a Racing Bull seat.
That could leave Dunne as champion with nowhere to race, since the winner cannot return to F2. IndyCar and Formula E are the obvious exits. Watson would hate to see him take either.
“There’s other youngsters coming along who are going to be there with [their] foot in the door. If you take your foot out of the door and disappear, I think that’s probably the end of your opportunities in Formula 1.”
So the choice is between waiting at a team with no vacancy and leaving a sport that rarely lets anyone back in.
“This is going to be the making or breaking of Alex’s career,” says Watson.
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'A surplus of talent and a lack of seats’: How Alex Dunne could win F2 and have nowhere to go
“IT’S A VERY, very, very horrible situation that Formula 1 has created,” says John Watson, “where there’s a surplus of talent and a total lack of seat availability. And Alex is really in the middle of all that.”
Watson, from Northern Ireland, won five Grand Prix and drove for McLaren in the 1970s and 80s. He does not think he would get the same opportunities if he was in his prime today.
“If I was starting, as I did in 1970, I wouldn’t make it into Formula 1.”
Ireland has not had a driver on the Formula 1 grid since Ralph Firman raced for Jordan in 2003. Alex Dunne is the closest anyone has come since.
At 20, the Offaly man is in his second season in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Rodin Motorsport, one step below F1. He spent his first year as a McLaren junior driver. This year, he is spending it in the Alpine Academy.
So what are his chances of making the final step?
With two rounds to go, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Dunne sits third on 189 points, 18 behind Brazil’s Rafael Câmara and 11 behind Nikola Tsolov. Each round offers 39 points. To leave Qatar in the lead, Dunne needs to outscore Câmara by 19 and Tsolov by 12.
Perhaps the greater issue, though? A bottleneck in F1.
The problem starts at the top. Fernando Alonso is 45. Lewis Hamilton is 41. “They’re not about to retire to make way for a youngster coming in,” says Watson.
Below them, seats are filled early and for years ahead. Dunne is an Alpine junior, and Alpine is full: Pierre Gasly is contracted until at least the end of 2028, and Franco Colapinto signed an extension in August covering 2027.
What is left is decided by the academies. Kimi Antonelli finished sixth in F2 in 2024, and is now closing in on the world title with Mercedes. “He stood out like a sore thumb,” says Watson. “Got picked up by Mercedes, put through Formula 2, didn’t have the best results, but they saw something in him.”
Arvid Lindblad finished one place behind Dunne in F2 last year. Red Bull had backed him since he was 13, and he was on the grid by March.
Dunne has never had that kind of patron. He joined McLaren’s programme in 2024 and got his first F1 practice session in Austria last year, the first Irish driver to take part in an F1 weekend in over two decades.
He finished fourth-fastest in Lando Norris’ car, 0.224 of a second off George Russell’s best lap, 0.069 behind Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren, and 0.333 quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
“I don’t know whether he was running on low fuel, soft tyres,” says Watson. “Nevertheless, I was really impressed.”
By the autumn he had left McLaren. By March he was at Alpine, a team that has been here before. Oscar Piastri won the F2 title as an Alpine junior in 2021 and spent the next year watching from the garage. He ran out of patience and left for McLaren.
On track, Dunne has done his part. A top-three finish in F2 would secure the Super Licence points he needs to race in F1.
“If he won the title, that would certainly increase his options,” says Watson. “But again, there’s really one seat I can see that’s currently available.”
So why not walk? On track, he has done his part. With two rounds left, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, he is on 189 points, 18 behind Brazil’s Rafael Câmara and 11 behind Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov, with 39 on offer at each round. A top-three finish would also secure the Super Licence points he needs to race in F1.
Options
“If he won the title, that would certainly increase his options,” says Watson. Then he lists them, and stops quickly.
Even the title guarantees little. Of the nine F2 champions since 2017, four went straight into an F1 seat. “Fornaroli won the championship in ’25,” says Watson. “He hasn’t got a Formula One drive. All he is is a McLaren reserve driver.”
Only a handful of 2027 seats remain open, and Dunne’s two title rivals are better placed for them than he is.
Câmara is a Ferrari junior, and Haas runs Ferrari engines. “Ferrari might say, take Câmara, because we’ll make sure you get the same engines as the factory,” says Watson.
And, indeed, since we spoke to Watson, Haas confirmed the signing of Câmara for the 2027 Formula 1 season.
Tsolov is a Red Bull junior. Watson puts it at “50-50″ that he takes a Racing Bull seat.
That could leave Dunne as champion with nowhere to race, since the winner cannot return to F2. IndyCar and Formula E are the obvious exits. Watson would hate to see him take either.
So the choice is between waiting at a team with no vacancy and leaving a sport that rarely lets anyone back in.
“This is going to be the making or breaking of Alex’s career,” says Watson.
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Alex Dunne Drive To Survive f2