McLaren junior Alex Dunne still fuming over “joke” penalty that cost him Spa win
Alex Dunne can’t shake his frustration after having victory snatched away in Belgium, despite already competing in another Formula 2 weekend since then. The McLaren junior, who turned heads during his FP1 outing at the Austrian Grand Prix, remains stunned by the stewards’ decision that stripped him of a well-earned win.
Dunne crossed the finish line first at Spa-Francorchamps after dominating the field, only to discover hours later that his triumph had vanished.
The reason? Officials claimed he failed to use the mandatory start setup system when the race began. But the Irish driver insists this wasn’t an accident – his team, Rodin Motorsports, deliberately chose not to activate it because of the wet track and the fact they were starting behind a safety car.
“I have no problem saying that I think the penalty last week was a complete joke,” Dunne told GPblog in Hungary, clearly still angry about the situation.
The ten-second penalty dropped him all the way to tenth place.
“I understand there are rules and guidelines to follow, but there are also certain scenarios where the stewards themselves admit they can make different decisions if they want to,” he explained. “In my scenario, I felt like zero common sense was applied.”
What particularly frustrates Dunne is that his actions had no impact on the competition.
“It had zero effect on the race, didn’t even affect the formation lap, which is what the rule is there for,” he said. “If anything, what I did was almost safer because the whole point of the rule was for safety reasons. And we were doing a rolling start!”
The penalty cost Dunne valuable championship points, but he’s not worried about this incident hurting his Formula 1 prospects.
“I’m the one who won the race on track in tricky conditions,” he said confidently. “I did the hard part correctly, and if you want to make it to F1, that’s what you need to do.”
