Feeling like a celebrity at home and learning padel: Behind the Visor with Alexander Dunne

15 October 2025

Alexander Dunne has certainly made waves in 2025, having several highlight moments including Feature Race victories in Sakhir and Imola, all in his rookie Formula 2 campaign.

But away from the track, the Rodin Motorsport driver likes to keep things simple, even if at times, he is beginning to feel like a celebrity at home.

SIM RACING AND TIME AT HOME

“I mean I don't really do a whole lot to be honest. I would say my life is kind of a typical racing driver in the sense that the thing I do most at home is the sim.

“I am always on the sim at home, not even necessarily using it as prep for real life, but I enjoy doing sim racing at a high level, doing endurance racing in GT cars and prototypes, so I do a lot of sim racing.

“I have recently started to play padel more and more, it seems to be quite a big thing amongst the drivers. It's quite fun, and I enjoy playing it a lot, so I've started playing padel at home with friends.

“I like spending time at home as well, as a driver in F2, we have at least 14 weekends away and the numerous things I would be doing, whether it's media, sim days or whatever it may be, so as a racing driver you don't get a whole lot of time at home.

Dunne talked about what he does away from the track which includes learning to play padel

“So I like to enjoy that time at home, and relax as much as possible.

“It’s just me and my dad at home at the minute, so I normally make him cook for me, but we are not the type of family that go out to eat. It's always been that way, it's normally my dad and I make something at home or I make something myself.

“I do enjoy cooking but sometimes I am a bit too lazy.”

A DAY WITH ALEX DUNNE

“So my local kart track, Mondello Park, they actually sponsor me as well, so it was a Carole Nash historic festival, a weekend where you had a lot of old Le Mans cars, some old F1 cars and they show them.

“David Coulthard was there, Derek Daly and a lot of other really cool people there. It was a really cool weekend.

“I have done the event for the last couple of years as a deal with them as they are my sponsors, but this year with how well F2 is going, and doing FP1s, I think the support from home has elevated quite a lot, so I think it's the first weekend where I felt like I was a celebrity, it was pretty cool.

Dunne reflected on a day at Mondello Park where he met many of his supporters

“I could not go more than five minutes without being completely swarmed by a group of people, so it was pretty cool.

“To see all the support from home, and to know that pretty much everyone who was there was there to see me, was a really cool feeling, so to do stuff like that is fun.”

HOW HIS TRAINING HAS CHANGED

“My training has elevated quite a bit. I have always trained at a relatively high level, because the general rule of thumb as a driver is whatever you are racing in, you train for the next category.

“So if you're in F4, you train for F3, if you are in F3, you train for F2 and then F2 and F1. So I have always trained for whatever I am going to be in the year after, because I think that's what you need to prepare for, to make sure you are ready when you make the job.

“But the main thing I elevated this year is my neck training, I have always trained neck here and there, but neck strength is never something I have struggled with. But when I knew I was going to be in the F1 car, I started training it more, at least twice a day, and sometimes more if I find the time.”

The Irishman says his training has slightly changed this year as he works more on his neck strength

LEARNING TO PLAY PADEL

“I think padel purely started from seeing other drivers doing it. Amaury my teammate he plays quite a lot with other drivers on the grid, and some of my friends play at home, so I wanted to start.

“So because all the drivers play it so much, I found out that a lot of them were better than me, so I wanted to try and get better, and to be honest, it's a fun sport.

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“It's very enjoyable and you can combine it with the fitness side of things, because you are playing a sport for an hour and half nonstop and moving around. So part of your driver is staying fit, so it's a good thing as well.

“In general, it's just very enjoyable, and it's a nice time you can spend with your friends.”