Meath teenager Dunne selected for Ferrari scouting camp

Meath teenager Alex Dunne has been picked up by the Italian automobile federation to join its annual Ferrari Driver Academy scouting camp.

Dunne who can wrap up the British Formula 4 championship at Silverstone this weekend, tested a Formula 3 car at Snetteron last week in East Anglia.

The 16-year-old joins Brando Badoer, son of former Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer along with Italian racer Sebastiano Pavan and the USA's James Egozi.

Assessors from the Ferrari Driver Academy will decide if one of the four candidates has done enough to earn a place in the scouting world finals to be held at the end of the year.

Dunne, manager by his father Noel who is a former Formula Ford Festival and two-time Irish Formula Ford Championship winner, is on an upward curve having won the Italian Formula 4’s final race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria earlier this month.

He held off his team-mate Kasper Sztuka to register his third victory of the campaign and to move into third place in the competitive series.

Noel Dunne has taken on the mantle of mana.ging his son as Alex’s rise continues, a role he describes as "24/7".

"It’s pretty much a full-time role now but look with Alex producing the goods, it’s a bit of easier sell, but the costs involved are eyewatering," he said.

It’s been a long time since Ireland had an F1 driver with the likes of Eddie Irvine, John Watson, and Derek Daly amongst only a handful making their way to the top echelon of the sport.

It takes massive amounts of funding and indeed luck to make it to F1, but Dunne is going the right way about it being at the front of his F4 championship series.

"Formula 4 is like the start of the path all the way to Formula 1," the teenager said. "(But) That is probably one of the worst things