Red Bull circles as Alex Dunne exits McLaren in shock split
Red Bull has moved quickly on Alex Dunne after the Irish prospect’s abrupt McLaren exit on the eve of the Singapore Grand Prix, with Helmut Marko confirming the two sides are now talking.
Dunne’s departure — announced just before practice in Singapore — ends a relationship that began in early 2024 and accelerated this season as the 19-year-old stepped into Formula 2 with Rodin Motorsport. He delivered wins and regular podiums in his rookie campaign, plus FP1 outings for McLaren in Austria and Italy as part of an intensive testing-and-development schedule. The title bid faded thanks to a string of mishaps and team stumbles, but the raw pace and racecraft never really left the conversation.
What did was Dunne’s path to the top at McLaren. With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked in long-term, there was no obvious runway to an F1 seat. Behind the scenes, discussions over what came next reportedly diverged enough that both camps agreed to call time. McLaren thanked Dunne for his year in papaya and wished him well — and that was that.
Enter Marko. The Red Bull advisor met Dunne during the Hungarian Grand Prix for exploratory talks, a meeting that didn’t go unnoticed in Woking while Dunne’s future was still being mapped out. In Singapore, Marko told the BBC that Red Bull is in active dialogue now that the driver is free, praising Dunne’s aggression, speed and car control while noting he still makes the sort of mistakes that tend to get ironed out in the Red Bull system. No deal is signed, and there’s no timeline on the table yet, but the intent is clear.
It’s not hard to see why the energy drinks giant likes the profile. Red Bull thrives on sharp-edged talent, and Dunne fits that mold. His ceiling looks higher than the opportunities that were going to be available at McLaren in the short term. The trade-off? He’d lose the steady guidance of McLaren junior boss Warren Hughes, a significant figure in his development to date. Red Bull’s environment is different: more sink-or-swim, with a larger stable and fewer guarantees.
The inevitable question is where he might slot in. A leap straight to Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen isn’t realistic. The next stop in that ladder is Faenza. Red Bull’s sister outfit has been a proving ground all season, with Isack Hadjar’s stock rising on a standout rookie year and Liam Lawson rebuilding momentum after a bumpy start. Yuki Tsunoda’s form has been inconsistent. If Hadjar does move up the chain, and Lawson holds his ground, that leaves a single Faenza seat in play — the kind of opening Red Bull likes to pressure-test across its junior pool.
That’s where Arvid Lindblad comes back into focus. A leading academy talent over the past 12 months, Lindblad’s F2 form has dipped relative to expectations and he didn’t help himself colliding with Dunne in Monza’s feature race. Red Bull exploring Dunne now reads like both an opportunity and a message: performance decides everything, and there’s always another contender in the queue.
There is, however, a hard stop in Dunne’s immediate plan: paperwork. To race in F1, he needs 40 Super Licence points. That means finishing third or better in the F2 standings this year. If he falls short, Red Bull could still sign him and send him for a winter “top-up” programme — think a condensed overseas campaign to scoop the last points, as they’ve done before with juniors. Either way, it doesn’t preclude him from staying in F2 next year under the Red Bull banner while waiting for a 2026 or 2027 opening.
As for alternative avenues, Alpine has been linked in the paddock rumor mill, but those whispers haven’t carried much weight. The French manufacturer is understood to be looking internally for its next moves. Red Bull, by contrast, controls four grand prix seats and runs one of the sport’s most aggressive talent pipelines. If Dunne wanted options, he’s picked the one place that never runs out of them.
That doesn’t make the next few months any less pivotal. He still has an F2 campaign to close out with the stakes clear: convert, and he opens every door; miss, and the path just gets longer, not impossible. For a driver who’s shown he can win at the first time of asking, that’s a challenge he’ll probably welcome.
This is classic Red Bull territory — spotting momentum, moving fast, and daring a young driver to meet the moment. Dunne’s exit from McLaren closes one path, but it might just have accelerated the one that always looked more him.
