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One of the great things about Formula E is the opportunities it gives to young drivers. There’s the regular in-season Rookie Test, and ahead of this season, there was the Women’s Test on the final day of pre-season running in Spain. The Jeddah E-Prix presented another opportunity, with a new ‘Free Practice 0’ session being reserved specifically for drivers without a start in the series.

In the NEOM McLaren car was McLaren Driver Development programme driver Alex Dunne, who got his first taste of Formula E on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last Thursday, logging laps that helped the team and provided himself with vital experience as part of his development with the programme.

“It was a really enjoyable experience,” Alex says. “Having the opportunity to do a rookie session in a high-level series like Formula E is not something drivers get to do very often.”

Alex wasn’t chosen to drive the car as a one-off treat, he’s the team’s Reserve and Development Driver this season, so the real-world experience was as vital as it was enjoyable.

“Having a first feeling of the car, it means the feedback that I give the team on the sim can be a little bit more detailed because I have a better understanding of the car,” Alex explains.

As well as being useful for Alex, it provided the team with additional track time, which helped them to get ready for the weekend ahead - one that proved successful with a first Pole position and two podiums Taylor Barnard.

“The main thing was scrubbing tyres,” Alex says of his work in the session. “Scrubbing the tyres that the guys used for Qualifying. Qualifying was relatively warm but in the races, when the temperatures dropped, getting the tyres up to temp was much more difficult, so having a set of scrubbed tyres is very beneficial.”

Unusually for a rookie outing, FP0 was an official session on a race weekend rather than a separate dedicated test day. This was designed to provide the drivers with a more realistic race weekend experience and the extra pressure that comes with this, as Alex was tasked with helping the team to achieve their goals, rather than solely focusing on the track time.  

“We had a big plan,” he says. “There were a few things we had to go through that were aimed at trying to help the race drivers and to make their weekend a little bit easier. In the end, I didn't really do a representative lap, but overall, it was cool, and I enjoyed all the different aspects.”

The team approached the outing in the same way they would for a standard race weekend session, ensuring Alex did plenty of preparation work ahead of time, including several days in the team’s simulator. This meant that the day wasn’t full of complete unknowns, even though it wasn’t a familiar track to him or the team.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit that the team were racing on last weekend was a specially modified configuration of the track used Formula 1. It was new for Formula E, meaning that the teams had to wait for a final scan of the track before they could drive it on the simulator.

“We were limited and probably would have done more – I probably would have driven more - but this was a new track for Formula E, so you have to wait for the scan,” he says. “But we went through all the standard procedures and all the normal things that I would go through if I ended up racing on the weekend. We also went through the entire FP0 plan from start to finish.”

Formula E’s GEN3 Evo cars are also wildly different to anything Alex has driven up to now. In recent years he's raced in Formula 4 and Formula 3, and will embark on a maiden Formula 2 campaign later this year, so naturally the session threw up some surprises for the youngster. Chief among which was the differences with power delivery. Not only has Alex not driven a car of this level before, it was his first time in an all-electric race car.

“I knew that it was a quick car, with a lot of power, but I think the actual delivery of the power when you go on throttle, is very different in comparison to what I have been used to,” he says. “With these electric cars, when you go on the power, it is completely instant. There's no build up, you don't have to go through the gears. Getting used to that was a weird feeling."

This season, as part of the updated GEN3 Evo package, Formula E has introduced all-wheel drive when the car is utilising its full complement of 350kW. It’s the only single seater to have such a feature, something else Alex had to get accustomed to.

“I've never driven an all-wheel drive racing car before – the closest thing would be a road car, but you can't really compare that to Formula E,” he says. “It's a very different way of driving the car than anything I have driven before.

“So, there were definitely a few things to get used to. I've done a lot of days on the sim, but the sim never has that last little bit that you can only get from driving the real thing.”

With other objectives in mind, Alex didn’t set what he describes as “a representative time” around the circuit, but that doesn’t matter – it wasn’t a race, and he got out of the car what he needed, satisfied with his afternoon’s work.

“Overall, everyone seemed pretty happy,” he says. “I think all the work on the sim has been really good, and in comparison to Sam and Taylor, I seem to be there or thereabouts. I'm really enjoying my work with the team, and they seem happy with me. It's going in the right direction.”

Alex's rookie practice participation is a part of his wider role in the NEOM McLaren team, which was awarded to him after joining the McLaren Driver Development programme last May. Although he’s been wearing papaya for less than a year, he’s already established himself in the group and is enjoying the ride.

“I'm really enjoying it,” he enthuses. “I really, really like the team, everyone's been super welcoming. It's a real family environment. Everyone's put their arm around me and has been very helpful with any questions I've had.

“It's a very family-oriented team. It’s different to the junior series, where everyone is having to fight for themselves a bit more. In Formula E, it’s a different environment and everyone is working together because it’s in the team’s best interests to work with one another to get the best results.”

Alex is gearing up for his Formula 2 debut with Rodin Motorsport at the Australian Grand Prix in March and believes he will benefit from his brief Formula E foray.

“Not only do I get to do all those things, but I get to do it while being part of the McLaren Driver Development programme. To know that they have the trust in me to have these roles is quite a big thing for me.

“I think moving forward, it’s very beneficial. There's a lot of things I'll take from this that I've learned and will continue to learn. Hopefully, that will benefit me in whatever I end up racing in the future.”