Formula 2 driver Alex Dunne carried out his first F1 test on Wednesday, as he was set loose at Zandvoort in the MCL60.

Dunne stepped up into Formula 2 with Rodin Motorsport this year, with the Irish driver claiming his first win during last month’s Bahrain round.

Alex Dunne completes first McLaren F1 outing

Article image: Mike van der Bos / Bosracingshots

Racing from fourth to victory last month at the Bahrain International Circuit, Dunne’s Formula 2 win was the first at such a high level of motorsport for a driver from the Republic of Ireland since Derek Daly’s 1979 season in Formula 2.

As part of the McLaren junior driver programme, the next logical step for Dunne to continue on his journey to Formula 1 was to carry out a testing of previous car (TPC) outing.

With F1’s testing rules extremely restrictive when it comes to driving current machinery, the best option teams have to give their aspiring youngsters a chance to get acquainted with F1 machinery is to be given what is essentially a completely private test in a car from at least two seasons ago.

These TPC outings have been increasingly frequent to give drivers some proper track time in a reasonably contemporary F1 car, with an extensive TPC programme being used by Mercedes in 2024, for example, to give Kimi Antonelli plenty of preparation mileage ahead of his F1 debut season this year.

Having been signed to McLaren’s junior driver programme last year, and fresh off the back of attending the Monaco e-Prix as McLaren’s Formula E team, Dunne was sent to Zandvoort to take part in just such an outing on Wednesday.

Behind the wheel of the MCL60, Dunne is understood to have put in a clean showing but his day was marred by mechanical issues on the car which curtailed his running.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Xaverri (@xaverri)

As well as a TPC programme, Dunne is expected to carry out FP1 outings on behalf of McLaren this year, with all of the F1 teams mandated to hand over four such sessions to junior drivers, defined as drivers with two or fewer Grands Prix experience.

With Dunne being the leading light in McLaren’s junior programme, he is the logical choice for at least some of these outings, if not all – McLaren’s rookie plans are yet to be announced.

Dunne is the first driver from the Republic of Ireland to drive an F1 car, outside of demonstration events, since Tommy Byrne in the early 1980s, although Norwich-born Ralph Firman raced in F1 under an Irish licence 20 years ago.

However, a route into the McLaren F1 team is not clear at the moment, with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri signed to the team on long-term deals.

Also in attendance for their own run programme was Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, on the day he was confirmed as returning to F1 as a race driver. On Wednesday morning, Alpine confirmed Jack Doohan has been demoted from the race driver line-up, with the Argentinean driver moving up on a five-race deal.

Read Next: Franco Colapinto issues first statement after replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine