Headline: Marko circles McLaren junior Alex Dunne as 2026 conversations quietly begin
If you were wondering who Helmut Marko’s eye has fallen on next, the answer, unsurprisingly, is the kid who keeps turning heads in Formula 2 and hasn’t blinked in his first taste of F1. McLaren junior Alex Dunne has had early, exploratory talks with Red Bull’s motorsport boss about 2026, with both sides sounding each other out while the 2025 season reaches its back stretch.
Dunne’s rookie F2 campaign has been the right kind of noisy. He arrives at Monza fifth in the standings, 30 points off Leonardo Fornaroli, with two feature race wins and a stack of podiums on the board. That tally could be fatter, too. A couple of disqualifications for technical and operational missteps on Rodin’s side have cost him dearly, which only sharpened the impression that the pace is real and the ceiling high.
It’s the same impression McLaren’s had from his F1 outings. The Irishman joined Woking’s Driver Development Programme last year and has since piled on TPC mileage and landed two FP1s. In Austria he was fourth-fastest in FP1, a sliver behind Oscar Piastri in the sister car, then had a muted Monza session where interruptions scuppered a proper push lap. No panic, no theatrics — just a young driver looking like he belongs.
That tends to put you on Marko’s call sheet. The Austrian talent-spotter, who’s hardly shy about moving quickly when he sees what he likes, has met Dunne and his camp in person, with initial chats focused on 2026. It’s early days, and no, this isn’t a done deal for a Racing Bulls seat. But it is a marker laid down — and a reminder to McLaren that “we love your prospect” only goes so far without a pathway.
And that’s the pinch point. McLaren’s senior seats are blocked by Lando Norris and Piastri on long-term deals, as per the 2025 F1 entry list. There’s no B-team or formal partner to park a rookie. Win F2 and Dunne can’t come back in 2026; stay in F2 and risk flattening the momentum. When the iron’s hot, you swing — which is exactly what Red Bull offers with four cockpits under its roof and a long history of fast-tracking the brave.
The chessboard on Red Bull’s side isn’t settled either. Yuki Tsunoda’s position is understood to be fragile for next year, with sources indicating Isack Hadjar has become a strong favourite to join Max Verstappen at the senior team for 2026. Liam Lawson, having already stepped up earlier in the year, is expected to be retained. Down the ladder, Arvid Lindblad — already banked enough Super Licence points before he even hit F2 — is the obvious F2-to-F1 candidate for Racing Bulls. Dunne, currently fifth in F2, would meet the Super Licence threshold as well.
Read that list again and you see how Dunne could fit, and how he might not. If Hadjar and Lawson are locked in and Lindblad’s the next cab off the rank at Racing Bulls, Dunne’s route via Red Bull is still competitive. But the mere existence of those talks applies pressure elsewhere. McLaren either needs to accelerate a plan to lend, place or partner him into a race seat for 2026, or risk losing one of the standout rookies of the year to the operation that’s made a habit of turning potential into podiums at alarming speed.
Marko, for his part, isn’t hiding the interest. “We’re always interested in fast and confident drivers, and Dunne is a fast and confident driver,” he told PlanetF1. That’s about as close to a wink as you’ll get. Asked about the separate chatter linking IndyCar champion Alex Palou to a Red Bull shot, Marko was brisk: “We never had a discussion with him… He’s not on our radar, no.”
Dunne-to-Red Bull is not a straight line. It’s a strategic flirtation with obvious upside and familiar risk. Switching from McLaren’s development ladder to Red Bull’s is a leap many have made, some with career-making results, others with scar tissue to show for it. But if you’re Dunne, and you’ve just outpaced half the F1 field in an hour’s FP1 at the Red Bull Ring, you can understand why the phone keeps buzzing.
For now, the kid has bigger fish to fry. There’s an F2 title fight to chase, a Super Licence to bank beyond doubt, and a few more chances to remind F1 he’s not just quick, he’s repeatable. The rest — the politics, the pathways, the pressure — will take care of itself. And if you know Helmut Marko, you know he won’t wait forever.
