Red Bull doorway narrows for Alex Dunne as Helmut Marko speaks out

Helmut Marko has confirmed that Alex Dunne will not be driving any of the Red Bull-controlled F1 cars in 2026.

The Rodin Motorsport driver is seeking fresh opportunities for a potential Formula 1 programme, having split paths from McLaren ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Helmut Marko: Alex Dunne ‘not an option’ for Red Bull

Dunne’s sudden departure from McLaren, with whom he had been a junior prospect for 18 months through an F3 campaign and his rise into becoming an F2 frontrunner, came as a shock immediately before the Singapore weekend.

The Irish driver remains a contender for the F2 championship, albeit he will need tremendous fortune across the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi if he is to secure the title, following a spate of misfortune caused by team operational and procedural errors, as well as on-track incidents.

His split from McLaren is believed to have hinged on a failure to find common ground regarding Dunne’s immediate future.

That same weekend, PlanetF1.com learned that discussions between Dunne’s camp and Red Bull’s Helmut Marko had escalated beyond that of mere introductions, but that a race seat at either of the two Red Bull teams was not on the table for next season.

This situation remains the same, although Marko has now seemingly confirmed that Dunne will not be behind the wheel of one of the Racing Bulls or Red Bull cars next season.

“He’s not an option for us,” Marko said of Dunne, while speaking to Austria’s Kleine Zeitung.

PlanetF1.com understands that conversations between Dunne’s camp and Red Bull are no longer with an eye to bringing the Irish driver onto the Red Bull Junior Programme, but the door hasn’t shut on a potential support package to keep Dunne in F2 or to revisit the situation once Dunne has secured his FIA Super Licence.

It’s understood that Dunne’s Super Licence situation is currently the biggest stumbling block to his immediate forward progression.

Dunne currently does not have the prerequisite 40 points required to secure a Super Licence, and must finish in the top three of the F2 championship this year to achieve this. Should he fail to do so this year, the leading option in single-seaters is to remain in F2 and work towards achieving the final points required to reach to 40-point threshold.

Red Bull’s current top prospects on the junior ladder are Oliver Goethe, Pepe Marti, and Arvid Lindblad – all of whom Dunne leads in the F2 standings, having secured two feature race wins and multiple podiums through this season.

With three cockpits across the Red Bull teams for 2026, and Dunne off the table as a possibility for these F1 seats for the time being, it appears Lindblad is the frontrunning junior prospect to make the step up into Formula 1 if Red Bull opts for change next season.

“[Lindblad is] younger than Hadjar,” Marko said.

“And you have seen in the past that age plays a role in Formula 1. But in general, he is another hope of ours. We’ll see him in the car this year.”

Conversations between Red Bull and Dunne regarding possibilities on how the two sides could work together remain active.

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