19-year-old Irish racing driver Alex Dunne is currently the favourite to win the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
After round six finished in Barcelona on 1st of June, Dunne sat on top of the points table. But with eight more rounds still to go and cutthroat competition; will he make it as the champion by the final round is run on Yas Island in December?
Bookmakers rank Dunne as the favourite
Right now Dunne is notably the favourite, as stated by odds from Irish bookmakers on Scs.ie. He has always been a remarkable contender and there was no doubt that he would perform well.
Still, it was always a question of whether he could maintain stellar race times consistently or let the pressure affect his decision-making.
Competing for top team Rodin Motorsport alongside Amaury Cordeel, who has competed in four Formula 2 Championships including this season, Dunne is taking his first run at the championship seriously. he has finished in the top three almost every time, despite a rocky start in Melbourne.
His current odds to win the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship outright are 7/2 (bet365). Dunne is also a part of the McLaren Driver Development Program, which means that there is speculation that he could join the team in Formula 1 if he can manage to win F2 first.
Dunne’s previous form
Off to a bumpy start, Dunne received a penalty in Melbourne for a non-compliant modification on his car, which left Joshua Dürksen in first place after Round One. Dunne came ninth in the sprint race and didn’t even make the top three in the standings.
Luckily, Round Two in Sakhir saw Dunne win the feature race and secure a record for the first Irish driver to win a Formula 2 feature race in Bahrain (and this wouldn’t be the only race Dunne would win).
News outlets compared the young driver to Irish legend Derek Daly, whose last appearance in the European Formula Two was in 1979 when he came in third. The Bahrain round was the one to put Dunne on the map, and from then on he was viewed as a strong potential winner.
Although this vision seemingly crumbled in Jeddah when he only finished eighth in the feature race, Dunne took the top spot for the second time in the season in Imola after winning the feature race.
In Monaco, there were high hopes for Dunne as he took his first pole position. However, Dunne crashed into Victor Martins and caused a pile-up on the opening lap, landing him a 10-place grid penalty in the subsequent race in Barcelona.
In addition to other incidents like a three-place penalty in the sprint race and then also the feature race, Dunne stacked up a cumulative total of 16 places in penalties. Although things looked bleak for Dunne, his best was yet to come in Barcelona.
His latest performance in Spain went so well that he has now taken the lead in the Championship. During the sprint race, Dunne started in 19th and finished second. During the feature race, Dunne started in eighth and finished in fifth. In spite of the setbacks, Dunne is now the title favourite.
The completion of the next round in Spielberg will mark the end of the first half of the 2025 Formula 2 Championship. Beginning on the 27th of June, it will be interesting to see if Dunne can keep up his commendable driving.
Other potential champions
To discuss other potential winners of the F2 Championship, let’s have a look at the betting odds from bet365.
| To Win Outright | Betting Odds (Fractional) | (Betting Odds Decimal) |
| Alex Dunne | 7/2 | 4.50 |
| Richard Verschoor | 4/1 | 5.00 |
| Arvid Lindblad | 4/1 | 5.00 |
| Jak Crawford | 9/2 | 5.50 |
| Luke Browning | 5/1 | 6.00 |
Richard Verschoor is a 24-year-old racing driver from the Netherlands. He is racing with MP Motorsport and has been clear from the get-go that he aims to win. Verschoor graduated to Formula 2 in 2021 when he made his debut, and has been competing every year since.
Slowly climbing the ranks, Verschoor has been improving steadily and this may be the year when he finally takes the top spot. Currently, he is in second place behind Dunne, having won the feature race in Jeddah and the sprint race in Barcelona.
Another potential winner is Arvid Lindblad, who is a part of the Red Bull Junior Team and racing for Campos Racing. At only 17 years of age, the London-born driver has a good chance of winning. Lindblad won the sprint race in Jeddah and the feature race in Barcelona, making him 3rd in the standings after Round Six. This is his first Formula 2 Championship, just like Dunne.
Jak Crawford from North Carolina could potentially be a dark horse. Racing with DAMS Lucas Oil, Crawford won the sprint race in Imola and the feature race in Monaco. Although Crawford has not yet won a championship in his career, he is a reserve driver for Formula E.
Luke Browning, the winner of the 2023 Macau Grand Prix for Formula 3 cars, has a shot of placing in the top three if he can secure a few wins in the upcoming races. So far, Browning has yet to win either a sprint race or a feature race, which is disappointing for the Williams Driver Academy member.
Browning did however; bag the fastest laps in Bahrain and Imola. After Round 5, Browning was the Championship lead but failed to keep up with the tempo in the following races in Barcelona. Racing with Hitech TGR, is it too late for Browning to succeed?
Conclusion
Alex Dunne takes the top spot after Round Six. The standings are currently:
- 1st Place: Alex Dunne (87 points)
- 2nd Place: Verschoor (84 points)
- 3rd Place: Lindblad (79 points)
There are eight more rounds to go and a competition as unpredictable as the Formula 2 Championship is impossible to predict. We can only speculate that Dunne will continue to impress us with his speed and passion and eagerly await the next races.
