McLaren have announced Lando Norris will be replaced by Irish driver Alex Dunne for first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Dunne, 19, has never driven on an F1 race weekend but will get his opportunity to impress in Friday’s opening session at the Red Bull Ring.

The teenager leads the Formula 2 championship in his rookie season and has been part of McLaren’s Driver Development Programme since last year.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to drive during FP1 in Austria,” said Dunne, who is the first Irish driver to complete in an F1 weekend since Ralph Firman in 2003.

“I’m really looking forward to getting laps in behind the wheel of the MCL39 and supporting the team with the set-up for the race weekend ahead.

“I’ve been preparing well for the sessions, taking part in Testing of Previous Cars tests in the MCL60 and spending time on the simulator, which has been a fantastic learning experience.”

All Formula 1 teams must run a rookie at least twice in each of their cars over the season, so McLaren are using the mandatory requirement to give Dunne a first chance in this year’s car.

The relatively simple nature of the Red Bull Ring, compared to other tracks, mean the full-time drivers do not necessarily need all three practice sessions to get comfortable with the car before qualifying.

“It’s great to be able to give Alex the opportunity to run in Free Practice 1 and for him to get valuable time behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car as part of his development,” said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

“The team are pleased to be working with him more closely and for his support across the weekend, where he will be providing useful feedback to help with the car’s set-up.

“The rookie sessions are fantastic for seeing the talent of tomorrow and enabling that rare chance to get time in a current car, so we look forward to seeing him on track.”

Who is Alex Dunne?

Born on November 11, 2005 in Offaly, Dunne quickly rose through the karting ranks and jumped at the opportunity to drive in Formula 4 when he turned 15 – the minimum age you can drive at that level.

He took pole position and a podium on his single-seater debut in F4, then dominated the British F4 season in 2022 as interest increased.

Dunne was runner-up in Italian F4 in the same year, then finished second in the GB3 Championship in 2023. Although he struggled to consistently shine in F3, McLaren signed him in May 2024 and Dunne made the step up to F2 with Rodin Motorsport this year.

He was not expected to be a title challenger but finds himself leading the standings ahead of this weekend’s races in Austria after two impressive Feature Race wins in Bahrain and Imola, plus two other podiums.

However, he was deemed at fault for a Turn 1 incident in Monaco’s Feature Race against Victor Martins which caused a pile-up. Dunne was heavily criticised on social media, which led to him deleting apps on his phone

“I got a lot of stuff after Monaco, normally I’m not someone who reads things and gets annoyed by them,” he said.

“But I think an hour after the race, I deleted social media off my phone because I’ve never received such bad messages in my life. A lot of the stuff I got was really bad and quite upsetting, to be honest.”

McLaren team principal Stella spoke to an emotional Dunne, who bounced back from a grid penalty to go from 19th to second place in the F2 Sprint in Spain and took fifth in the Feature Race to retain his championship lead.

“Alex is doing very well, he’s a very fast driver, very talented, and the situation he had in Monaco was one of those situations where you can learn a lot,” Stella said.

“Multiple world champions went through situations that were very important to fine-tune the way they go racing.

“We had good conversations with Alex to reaffirm our complete support to his talent, to the championship he’s fighting for. We always see a very mature person.

“The way he raced was an immediate response to the situation he had in Monaco and the pressure that came from these social media comments. That’s something that makes me very proud of him.

“I think we need to realise that we live in a difficult world in which people can attack other people really with no foundation, sometimes no competence, so we’re completely behind Alex, not only on track but also off-track from this point of view.

“I just felt a little bit for him but I also felt very proud of him in showing his reaction, being genuine, natural – but for me, a call to our sense of responsibility overall.”