Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri share a singular team-mate dynamic in entrance of the TV cameras.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri work nicely as team-mates (Picture: David Davies/PA Wire/PA Pictures)
Alex Dunne has praised McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, explaining that the 2 2025 title protagonists are ‘regular folks’ who had been ‘greater than open’ to serving to him throughout his stint as a junior driver for the crew.
Dunne grew to become a notable title within the F1 paddock in 2025 after shining in his take a look at and reserve driver duties on the Austrian Grand Prix. The 20-year-old laid down lap occasions that had been in shut quarters with team-mate Piastri, placing him on the radar of informal followers and different groups on the grid.
After being linked with a shock change to Purple Bull, Dunne exited the McLaren younger driver programme forward of the Singapore Grand Prix in October, though he stays unattached as he prepares for his sophomore System Two marketing campaign with Rodin Motorsport in 2026.
Shining a lightweight on his expertise with McLaren, Dunne informed Balls.ie: “Attending to spend extra time round Lando and Oscar as nicely was fairly cool, simply to be taught from them and see how they method a weekend.
“Additionally getting to grasp them a bit extra as folks as nicely. They’ve a really cool job, and so they do what I hopefully wanna do someday. However I feel they’re additionally simply type of regular folks like the remainder of us; it is simply they’re on a TV display screen much more typically.
“I feel I discovered rather a lot from each of them. They had been very nice with me and actually useful, any time I requested them questions or was taken with studying one thing from them. They had been at all times very useful and greater than open to assist me if wanted. It was very, very cool, and I feel what I’ve discovered from this 12 months, I will take ahead with me endlessly.”
Alex Dunne stop McLaren in October (Picture: Getty)
Along with his McLaren ties now severed, Dunne is a free agent as he targets the F2 crown in his second 12 months within the sequence. The Irishman has been linked with Alpine’s younger driver programme, though no formal announcement has been made.
This could possibly be an attractive route into the F1 paddock for Dunne, who will little question be trying to capitalise on the uncertainty surrounding Franco Colapinto’s future. The Argentine racer failed to attain some extent after changing Jack Doohan in 2025, however was retained for 2026 as Flavio Briatore seems to be to offer the 22-year-old extra time.
Wanting again at his McLaren stint, Dunne mirrored: “It was fairly cool. FP1 in Austria went fairly nicely, I’d say. No, it was superb, to be trustworthy.
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“Though I am not nonetheless with them now, I will at all times thank McLaren for that chance and for what they did for me up till we determined to go our separate methods. To have the chance this 12 months to check an F1 automobile a few occasions exterior of FP1 after which do two FP1s was clearly fairly particular.”
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