First verdict in: this is how McLaren's '26 challenger felt!

Dunne made his F1 debut in FP1 in Austria, impressing in the McLaren car. The Irishman is not only fighting for the world title in the Formula 2 championship, but is also doing a lot of work in the simulator for the Woking-based squad.

Similarly to Red Bull talent Arvid Lindblad, Dunne has already put in hours of the '26 car the aforementioned way, and answered GPblog's question about his experience.

"There's a lot of changes, I think it's quite a big difference. Definitely I would say the car probably doesn't feel as nice as it does right now. But no it's still cool," he began.

He continued: "I think there are a lot more things to think about going into next year and there's a lot of things the team have to focus on and make sure they get it right and hit the ground running for next year, but still I think it's going to be very exciting."

The Irish driver provisionally won the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, which meant he took the lead in the championship. However, after he received a 10-second time penalty, he was relegated to P9. As a result, he is in fourth place in the standings, 11 points behind Invicta Racing driver Leonardo Fornaroli.