McLaren \u201cdropped the ball\u201d by opting to part ways with junior driver Alex Dunne, according to former F1 driver Derek Daly.<\/p>\n
Last week, McLaren announced it had ended its contract with Dunne after almost 18 months in partnership.<\/p>\n
Dunne took part in a series of private tests with the Woking-based squad as well as two FP1 sessions this year in Austria and Italy, respectively.<\/p>\n
The split is believed to stem from the two parties not being aligned over the Irishman’s future.<\/p>\n
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who oversees the company’s junior programme, has revealed it has held talks with Dunne following his exit from McLaren.<\/p>\n
With two Racing Bulls seats open for next year in F1, Dunne has been linked with one of the drives – a situation Daly believes his compatriot would thrive in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex Dunne, I know, has the utmost confidence and faith in his own driving abilities,\u201d Daly exclusively told RacingNews365<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s prepared to jump in if a seat is presented to him. Red Bull has to be cognizant of the fact of \u2018look, let’s make sure we don’t make another mistake and throw drivers in and out\u2019.<\/p>\n In order for Dunne to be granted a super licence that will allow for a full-time move to F1, he must finish at least third in the Formula 2 drivers\u2019 championship, an achievement Daly stated he is \u201ccapable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunne currently sits fifth with two rounds remaining.<\/p>\n With both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri tied down to long-term deals at McLaren, there was no obvious route to a full-time move to the team in the near future for Dunne.<\/p>\n However, Daly criticised McLaren for letting the 19-year-old leave, insisting it made \u201cno sense\u201d to allow him to walk away.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great thing is that Red Bull recognises there’s a fast, aggressive Red Bull-type of driver,\u201d Daly said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s now become available on the market, which I think was a huge mistake by McLaren.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Red Bull is going to try and grab him to give him a chance to develop into what he can be.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the best scenario for Alex. But I can’t believe that McLaren dropped the ball and let him go.<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody, someday, will have to answer that question, because it absolutely makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren \u201cdropped the ball\u201d by opting to part ways with junior driver Alex Dunne, according to former F1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[859,4199,1076,1074,1077,1075,997,707,4200,998,1073,1072,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-491867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-f1-calendar","11":"tag-f1-live","12":"tag-f1-results","13":"tag-f1-standings","14":"tag-ferrari","15":"tag-formula-1","16":"tag-formula1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motorsport","20":"tag-racing","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115357451951641947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}