“I was pretty chilled” - Dunne credits calm approach for F2 qualifying in Barcelona

Credit: Formula 2 via X

“I said to the team: We don't really need to worry about it,” remarked Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, speaking to DIVEBOMB after his F2 qualifying performance in Barcelona.

Dunne had faced a major setback during a qualifying session. His first lap time of the session, a 1:25.528, was deleted after he was found to have snuck over the white lines denoting the track limits at Turn 13. His streak of finishing in the top four in every Friday qualifying stood at risk of being eroded.

Turn 13, in itself, is an incredibly quick section on the circuit, with its wider exit kerb seeing drivers carry plenty of speed. This, along with Turn 9, brought about the lap time deletions for track limits in qualifying.

For many drivers, losing their best lap time could spring a sense of panic, an alarming situation. With how tight the margins are in F2 qualifying, it could mean the difference between starting comfortably towards the top, or facing the tough ask of a comeback drive from well down the grid. 

Even on the day, only four tenths separated Gabriele Minì, who sat fourth at the end of the session, and Roman Bilinski, down in 17th. Perhaps, when faced with such a situation, the younger, rookie version of Dunne could have fallen into an alarming state of panic.

To go out and attempt a last-ditch lap in the dying minutes, and risking it all on the line. A win-at-all-costs approach that saw him go flat out. As Dunne himself would admit, “In the past, a win may be something that we've probably chased a little bit too much.”

“It's very easy to find yourself in a spiral; you get stressed or nervous or whatever, and then you probably go out and push a bit harder than what you necessarily need to on that final run,” Dunne reiterated, speaking on the possibility of him panicking and veering away from his traditional approach. But Dunne, a fierce racer in his own right, did not panic.

Credit: Formula 2 via X

With F2 drivers not adding in any fuel during the qualifying session, he would only gain lap time as the fuel level dropped and his car only. It wouldn’t be easy to forget the driver sitting in the cockpit and driving the car, either. “I must have driven a thousand laps around Barcelona,” Dunne remarked, speaking of how familiar drivers have gotten with the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya over the years.

Even still, Much of Dunne’s 30-minute qualifying in Barcelona was spent towards the rear of the timesheets, as he finally went out onto the track once again, with 10 minutes remaining on the clock. From the outside, it certainly would have brought in some tension: Would he really be able to pull out a magical lap from the bag?

However, this wasn’t the Dunne of old. This was a more assured, calmer version of the Irishman that has become a major factor in his successful run in 2026.

“For me, I was pretty chilled,” he would reply, on his qualifying approach. “At the end of the day that second push (lap) is the one that matters when the fuel (level) is down.”

“If I go out and just do a normal lap, we should be fine,” he reiterated, looking at the simplest way forward in the session. The Rodin man needed to get his lap time in before any red flags were thrown out and brought the session to a halt.

With drivers unable to improve on laps after doing only a single preparation lap, there would be no major improvements after the session resumed. Case in point was Dunne’s teammate Martinius Stenshorne, a top-five qualifier throughout 2026, who found himself marooned in 16th at the end of the session.

And Dunne’s second effort would certainly catch the eyes of many looking to see how he was getting along. A 25.0 matched the best first sector on the day. Only the phenomenal Rafa Câmara would edge past that, setting a 24.8 on the second flying lap he wouldn’t complete.

Dunne would set a 34.2 in the second sector and a 25.7 second final sector, both a tenth of a second down on Câmara’s pole lap, but in the end, it was enough for yet another third position result in a Friday session. As he would acknowledge, pole was not on the cards this time.

“I think especially the lap time Rafa (Câmara) did on run one, I think the fact that he's on pole after run one is very impressive,” the Rodin man expressed, speaking highly of his closest qualifier’s pace in the session. “If he went back out and just drove the exact same way already with the fuel effect (fuel levels reducing), he'd probably go two or three tenths quicker,” he continued.   

For much of his F2 career, there is no doubt Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne has been known as a quick racer. Frighteningly quick on his day. 

A driver who had taken pole position by a staggering four tenths to his nearest rival at Spa-Francorchamps in 2025, and who held a special pole in Monaco to his name. Victories in the Feature Races at Bahrain and Imola by considerable margins had marked him out as a rising star to watch out for. 

Although, heading into his second F2 season, there’s no doubt Dunne has added a layer of patience and calmness to the rapid speed that has won him races. 

Sure, there are still chinks in his armour. A hot-headed spur-of-the-moment reaction after crashing out of the race lead with teammate Stenshorne in Melbourne. An incident at the hairpin in the Canadian sprint that saw Dürksen gesturing to the Irishman, pointing to him to ‘use his head.’ A lock-up that saw him clatter into the barriers in Miami’s Feature Race.

But beneath these incidents, a calmer and more assured version of Dunne is slowly developing in this sophomore season. His acceptance of pole being a tad too far stands as one important action. An approach of, “I think I'd rather err on the side of caution and come home with a couple of points rather than none,” as he would put it after Barcelona’s qualifying. 

There’s no doubt the Rodin man is turning a corner at a critical stage of his career, and should he keep this up, there’s no doubt he would be looking at potentially making a major step up in his racing career with a calmer approach.