Helmut Marko: “Fast, aggressive” Alex Dunne the type of driver “Red Bull likes”

Red Bull Formula 1 advisor Helmut Marko confirmed he will pick up discussions with former McLaren junior Alex Dunne about a role with the team.

Dunne and McLaren went their separate ways after the two parties couldn’t come to an agreement over their future plans. Irish F2 frontrunner Dunne sees his pathway to F1 promotion at the papaya team blocked by the presence of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are both on long-term deals.

Dunne now becoming a free agent allows the 19-year-old to fully explore his options elsewhere, with Red Bull known to have had exploratory talks with him. Those discussions will now resume, the team’s driver advisor Marko confirmed to Motorsport.com.

“He’s a very aggressive driver, he has fantastic car control, and he’s fast. So that’s what Red Bull likes, and of course we will have discussions with him [now he’s free],” Marko said.

Alex Dunne completed two Friday outings for McLaren in Austria and Italy.

Photo by: Andrea Diodato / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Quite how Dunne fits into the Red Bull puzzle is not yet clear, but with the Irishman not yet qualifying for an FIA superlicence the most likely avenue is another campaign in F2 dovetailed with private testing and TPC outings, with Dunne already having completed two FP1 sessions for McLaren this year.

With Dunne losing most of his accrued superlicence points after this season, he needs to finish in the top three of this year’s F2 championship to qualify. That means making up 31 points to third-placed Williams junior Luke Browning as well as overhauling a 21-points deficit to Richard Verschoor, with just two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi left to run.

Red Bull has yet to confirm its four-car driver line-ups across Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, with a final decision expected to be announced by the end of the month. Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar is in line for promotion to the main team, while Red Bull’s current junior driver Arvid Lindblad is expected to be promoted to the Anglo-Italian squad.

Adding Dunne to the line-up as the next talent in line would fit with Marko’s preferred strategy of having someone waiting in the wings to put pressure on the organisation’s race drivers.

When asked what Red Bull’s plan for Dunne could look like, Marko appeared to leave options open depending on where the Irishman finishes in F2: “He doesn’t have a super license, so let’s see. There are two more races in F2. Let’s see what he can achieve.”