Alexander Dunne: ‘Speed is there but results will come’ as he targets return to winning ways

Currently fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, Alexander Dunne has put together a season of great consistency but one that’s missing a victory so far.

The Rodin Motorsport driver has been on the podium five times this year so far, has a further four top five finishes and shown incredible speed in Qualifying.

In fact, up until Budapest, Dunne hadn’t failed to finish inside the top four on a Friday all year. Overall, Dunne says he’s been satisfied with his efforts, even if results haven’t gone his way.

“In general, it's been not too bad. I think we've been relatively consistent. I think qualifying has been a major strong point, being in the top three every weekend since Miami, which of course is really nice.

“Being consistent in quali is really important. I think that's definitely something I'm happy about. Then in terms of races, I think pace we need to improve a little bit, but we're getting there.”

The Alpine Academy driver is competing in his second FIA Formula 2 campaign, and he believes his experience from last year is counting for a lot this time around.

However, combined with natural one-lap pace, he says he is more confident across the board and working well with the same Rodin team he debuted with in 2025.

“I think it's a bit of both. I learned a lot from quali last year, there was also a few areas as a rookie I needed to improve on, which I think I've done a good job focusing on this year.

“The team also do a very good job with the car as well. The car is always in the window of where we want it to be, which, of course, makes it a lot easier as a driver.

The first phase of the season has brought podiums but no wins. Dunne says that the missing ingredient is race pace, but that lessons have been learned which formed the basis for strong results regardless.

He says that has come with experience, confidence within his team and self-belief that he can turn tricky situations around, without chasing for the impossible.

Dunne added that he’s sure things will come good in the final phase of the campaign after the summer break is over.

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“Whether we have the pace to win or the pace to finish fifth, whatever it is, I think we just always need to try and finish as high as we possibly can.

“If the start of a race hasn't gone to plan or if something happens in the middle, I think you just need to reset and maximise on what's possible on the day.

“That's what we've tried to focus on to make sure we get the most points out of every weekend. Race pace is probably the main area of focus, let's say. The last few rounds we've made a step forward and I think Spa was definitely a step in the right direction.

“So I'm pretty confident that we'll be challenging and back to normal pace for wins and things like that pretty soon. Definitely a couple of things that we found that seem to be working consistently. If what we've figured out is true, then I think we should be back to normal.”

Looking ahead to Monza and when racing resumes, Dunne has no major targets or goals outside of maximising results.

His wait for a win has gone on longer than he’d have liked, but the Irishman is confident he can make it happen before the end of the year, whether that’s in Monza, Madrid or beyond.

Beyond that, he’s not looking at the Championship table, and will instead aim to keep himself out of trouble in the upcoming races which he says will be exciting rounds.

“I just want to try and maximise myself every weekend and get the most out of what we've got. And where we end up is where we end up. I'm not really too focused on that at the moment to be honest.

“Monza's always an enjoyable one, a track I like and it's always fairly exciting, qualifying and a bit of chaos as well, which is always good for the fans. And then Madrid, I'm really looking forward to it.

“From what I've seen, the track looks pretty cool. It looks very high speed and it's a street circuit as well. So I think the fact that it's also going to be a new track for the whole group will make it very exciting.”