Lando Norris sidelined as McLaren make Austrian Grand Prix driver change

McLaren have called up a young driver as part of their bid to win the Austrian Grand Prix, with Lando Norris not playing an immediate role.

Norris is in the midst of a tight championship battle with team-mate Oscar Piastri, with the pair's crash at the Canadian GP recently meaning that Norris is now 22 points behind Piastri after 10 rounds of the 2025 championship.

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Despite this, McLaren are still needing to fulfil their quota of having rookie drivers stepping into both of their cars on two occasions throughout 2025, up from one per car in 2024.

Because of this, Norris will sit out Austrian GP practice, with Irishman Alex Dunne instead taking his seat in FP1.

Dunne is a member of McLaren's driver development programme and will be making his F1 session debut in Austria, having previously only taken part in test programmes.

Norris will then return to his car for FP2 later in the same day, as he resumes his championship battle with Piastri and 2024 rival Max Verstappen.

Who is Alex Dunne?

19-year-old Dunne joined McLaren's books in 2024, and he has had a remarkable rise since then.

Dunne was promoted from F3 into F2 for 2025, and currently leads the F2 championship having claimed two wins and four podiums from his opening 11 races in the series.

Now, the former F4 British championship winner is being rewarded with his official F1 debut, and Dunne revealed in a statement quite how excited he is for the role.

"It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to drive during FP1 in Austria," he said. "I’m really looking forward to getting laps in behind the wheel of the MCL39 and supporting the team with the setup for the race weekend ahead.

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

"Thank you to Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella] and Alessandro [Alunni Bravi] for their faith in me. It’s a great step within my development with the McLaren driver development programme, and I’m really excited to join the team trackside."

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