Helmut Marko has officially ruled out any chance of Red Bull handing a Formula 1 seat to Alex Dunne for the 2026 season. The Irish Formula 2 racer has been tipped to join the team’s driver development programme after leaving the McLaren set-up, but it was never expected that he would be fast-tracked into the top category.
And now adviser Marko has confirmed as much, making it clear in an interview with Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung that Dunne is not under consideration for one of the F1 seats that Red Bull still has available ahead of next year. “He is not an option for us,” the 82-year-old said.
If Red Bull do sign Dunne to their driver development programme, the 20-year-old would remain in F2 for a second season. He has caught the eye in his maiden campaign in the series up to now and sits fifth in the championship having topped the standings earlier in the year thanks to two feature race victories in the first four events.
However, a difficult recent run has seen him slip out of title contention. He is now 58 points behind leader Leonardo Fornaroli and, with two rounds left int he season, is no longer a realistic candidate to lift the trophy at the end of the year.
Dunne has also had more than his fair share of run-ins with the stewards and has picked up 10 penalty points as a result of a series of incidents for which he was adjudged to have been at fault. It means he is two away from a one-race ban and, perhaps more significantly, that poor disciplinary record is said to have seen some Red Bull insiders cool their interest in the Irishman.
Such concerns over the amount of penalty points he has amassed has reportedly led to Red Bull delaying their decision over whether to snap him up now he is a free agent. But Marko is known to be a fan and, if Dunne were to join, he would be in a strong position to contend for a promotion to F1 either during the 2026 campaign or ahead of 2027.
But even with Dunne out of the frame for a seat at the start of next year, Red Bull still have a selection headache to deal with. Isack Hadjar is expected to get the nod to partner Max Verstappen, but they still have three drivers vying for the two spots available at sister squad Racing Bulls.
That includes Verstappen’s current team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who is likely to either drop back down to the junior outfit or off the F1 grid altogether. Liam Lawson is also not yet guaranteed a place on the 2026 grid, with F2 racer Arvid Lindblad in the frame for a promotion as Red Bull believe the British teenager could be a star of the future.