Opinion: Was Alex Dunne Right to Choose Alpine?
2nd March 2026Alex Dunne is set to be a part of the Alpine Academy as he continues to race through the junior series, but did he make the right decision?
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Alex Dunne is soon to be announced as an Alpine Academy member for the 2026 season. His second year in F2 is critical, with the County Offaly native hoping to secure an F1 seat in 2027.
This would make Dunne the first Irishman in Formula One since Ralph Firman raced for Jordan in 2003, although Dunne would be the first driver born on the island of Ireland since Eddie Irvine.
However, did the Irishman pick the right team to join?
McLaren
Let’s start with the academy that Dunne left: McLaren. McLaren was never going to promote Alex Dunne to the team. They’re set for at least a decade. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have shown they have what it takes to fight at the front of F1, and unless McLaren falls off a cliff in terms of performance, or either driver unexpectedly leaves Woking, Dunne will not have the shot at a seat in Papaya for years.
The McLaren Driver Development Programme, does have the 2025 F2 champion, Leonardo Fornaroli, and recent FRECA runner-up, Matteo De Palo as their obvious short-term replacements.
In the long run, two Formula 4 rookies stand out. Dries Van Langendonk and Christian Costoya were two of the most impressive talents in karting. On the weekend of van Langendonk’s 15th birthday, the youngest a driver can be in British F4, van Langendonk won the third race, and in the Formula Winter Series, is leading the championship by 61 points after nine races.
Christian Costoya, on the other hand, finished sixth in UAE4, and second in the rookies’ championship, only behind Kenzo Craigie. The decision to leave McLaren made perfect sense for Dunne, as the team already seems to have its driver line-up sewn up for decades.
Red Bull
Dunne seemed to be heading to Red Bull once he left McLaren, with Dr Helmut Marko leaving the marque and Guillaume Rocquelin taking over as the advisor for the Red Bull Junior Team. Dunne was left on the sidelines.
Joining Red Bull his main short-term competition would have been the three non-Max Verstappen drivers, Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, and Arvid Lindblad, as well as the 2025 Super Formula Champion, Ayumu Iwasa, and Bulgarian Alpine defector, Nikola Tsolov. Fionn McLaughlin, Ernesto Rivera, and Mattia Colnaghi are all in Formula Three, however Dunne surely has to be aiming for an F1 seat by 2027. Red Bull would line him up nicely.
All he would have to do is beat an F2 rookie in Nikola Tsolov, and hope that Lawson, Hadjar, or Lindblad perform poorly. Or, less likely than that, Max Verstappen takes the plunge and leaves Red Bull.
While Red Bull seems like the most logical step on paper, it was not up to Dunne to make the move. Helmut Marko reportedly signed Dunne to the junior team, however the Red Bull team cancelled the move, forcing the Austrian outfit to pay Dunne hundreds of thousands in compensation.
Alpine
This led Dunne to his final destination: Alpine. Franco Colapinto has been under pressure since his return to Formula One at Imola last year. Originally signed for a five-race span, replacing Jack Doohan.
Colapinto ultimately took the seat for the remainder of the year. In the 18 races Colapinto competed in, the Argentinian failed to score a single point, whereas his teammate Pierre Gasly scored 16 points in the same stretch of time. Colapinto also only had one race where he failed to make the finish, the British Grand Prix. In which his Alpine failed to make the start of the race due to a gearbox issue.
Dunne will have to fight for the seat at Alpine, though.
Through all its guises at Enstone, since the formation of the Renault Academy in 2002, the only academy members to be promoted to the team were Heikki Kovalainen, Romain Grosjean, and Jack Doohan. Kovalainen stayed at Renault the longest, albeit only one season.
Grosjean and Doohan both only had seven races to prove themselves at the team. Grosjean would return to Team Enstone and Formula One three years after his debut, after Genii Capital bought the team and transitioned it to Lotus. Although Grosjean left the academy following his original promotion to Formula One.
Should Dunne replace Colapinto, it’s fair to say, like the last three teammates Gasly has had at Alpine, he would most likely not be given a fair shot. Ocon, Doohan, and Colapinto, consistently had rumours suggesting a move away from Enstone. With Gabriele Miní waiting in the wings in F2, as well as Paul Aron and Kush Maini being active reserve drivers for Alpine, there is no shortage in drivers looming over that second seat.
Others
Looking across the F1 grid the only other teams that seem to be having open slots any time soon are likely to be Ferrari, Haas, Audi, Cadillac, and Aston Martin. Aston Martin never look likely to promote a young driver to partner Lance Stroll.
Cadillac, for one, do not have an official academy, however they are focusing on trying to get Colton Herta into Formula One, and with Sebastian Wheldon backed by fellow TWG owned team, Andretti Global, and with the American making his debut with Prema in FREC this year, it seems likely that by the time either Pérez or Bottas are done in F1, Herta will have one seat and Wheldon will be primed to take the other.
Audi have just signed young Freddie Slater to their academy, with Bortoleto obviously their key aim for the future, Hulkenberg will surely be replaced by the Briton in a few years.
Haas, much like Cadillac, don’t have an official academy, with their only driver being F1 Academy’s Kaylee Countryman. However with Haas using Ferrari powertrains, and their existing link with Toyota, it seems should Bearman or Ocon leave, one of Ritomo Miyata, Rafael Camara, or Ryo Hirakawa should take a vacant seat.
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