F2 championship leader Alex Dunne recently revealed he has stopped looking at his own social media following a torrent of abuse from fans.

Dunne was targeted by online commenters following a major first-lap pile-up in Monaco, which was triggered by a clash between Dunne and Victor Martins at Turn 1.

Alex Dunne switches off social media after fan abuse

The incident triggered a wave of abuse across social media, mainly targeting the young Irishman as Dunne was given a grid drop for the Spanish GP weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Dunne leads the Formula 2 championship standings with two feature race wins, two podiums, and a raft of points finishes, with the rookie thriving in his first season in the category just below Formula 1.

The 19-year-old revealed during the Spanish weekend that the toxicity of the backlash was so great, that he removed all social media apps from his phone in order to keep his mind clear.

“I got a lot of stuff after Monaco, normally I’m not someone who reads things and gets annoyed by them,” he said in the F2 press conference on Saturday in Barcelona.

“But, I think an hour after the race, I deleted social media off my phone because I’ve never received such bad messages in my life.

“A lot of the stuff I got was really, really bad and quite upsetting, to be honest.”

While Dunne looked to wish to say more, he became emotional and was clearly upset by how events played out, with the press conference moving on.

Days later, the FIA, together with F1, F2, and F3, issued a statement condemning all forms of online social media abuse, with the FIA having embarked upon an initiative called United Against Online Abuse under President Mohammed Ben Sulayem in 2022.

“On behalf of our Teams and Drivers, F1, F1, F3 and the FIA, through their United Against Online Abuse campaign, firmly condemn abuse and harassment of any form,” read the statement.

“We’ll continue to collectively act upon and report abuse to social media platforms.

“Whether you are a fan or a part of the motorsport world, we are all driven by passion.

“At the heart of it all, there are humans.

“We urge everyone to remain respectful towards the athletes and their teams.”

Speaking in a Formula 2 press conference this week, Dunne’s F2 team boss Benn Huntingford from Rodin Motorsport explained how his team had aimed to keep the Irishman’s mind clear and focused on on-track matters, having been exposed to the full vitriol of an angry fandom for the first time.

“I think the statement from F2, F3, and F1 wasn’t exclusive to what’s been happening just with Alex, but also the wider area of comments that are made generally online,” Huntingford said.

“We’re supportive of them addressing the issue and trying to make the online environment a better place for the drivers, teams, and the fans.

“In terms of Alex, it was just a case of not letting it interfere with his weekend, and just help him keeping focused on on what he needed to be doing, with his racing and his driving, and just trying to shelter him from any of that and not letting it interfere with his weekend.

“No one’s there to do anything other than their best and try and win races. There will always be incidents in racing, and I think changing the way that it’s handled on social media is something to address in the future.”

Alex Dunne has ‘all the right ingredients’ for success

With Dunne’s form keeping him on contention for the F2 title at the first time of asking, the 19-year-old is knocking on the door of Formula 1.

Having taken part in his first Testing of a Previous Car (TPC) outings at Zandvoort last month, Dunne put in two half-days behind the wheel of McLaren’s MCL60 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, this week.

As the leading light of McLaren’s F2 programme, Dunne is expected to benefit from some FP1 appearances before season-end as every F1 team is required to field rookies for a minimum of four outings over the course of the year.

With no obvious way onto the F1 grid right now as McLaren’s driver line-up is full for the foreseeable future due to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being on long-term contracts, Huntingford spoke of Dunne’s talents and what marks him out as special.

“Alex has got all the right ingredients to be successful,” he said.

“He’s had good success in his junior career. He’s got the backing of a Formula 1 team. So he’s in the right place to be moving on from there.

“One of the things about Alex’s biggest strengths is his raw talent and his ability to put a fast lap together. Even though he’s in his rookie year, we’ve talked about all the various things that the rookies have to learn and get on top of and, alongside doing those things, he’s been able to do that and have that raw speed.

“I don’t think he’s taking the traditional route of being at the front of a championship, which is often we see drivers that just score lots of top five finishes, and that’s what eventually gets them to the front.

“Alex tends to be a bit all or nothing, and he tends to have his own approach to things, but I think it’s working okay for him.”

Asked whether Dunne still needs some refining or rough edges that need shaving off, Huntingford said, “When we say raw talent and stuff like that, he’s got an inherent speed. He knows what he’s doing inside the car. He knows how to get the most from it.

“I think one of the things that we’ve been doing with him, and it’s one of the reasons that you know we wanted him in the team, it’s much easier to take a fast driver who perhaps needs just a bit of experience, than to try and push someone on that maybe hasn’t got the ability or anything like that.

“So it’s a much easier job, from our side, to try and help someone get the most of their talent than it is to try and create talent.

“Alex has got that talent there in the first place. So I think, for us, that’s just a case of managing that alongside him.

“He’s absolutely great to work with, a really nice, friendly guy. He’s great to have around. We enjoy him being in the truck. We enjoy traveling with him. We stay in the hotel with him and, from that side of things, it’s been really great the way he works with the team.”

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