Alonso: If I was winning I would continue

In an interview with BBC, Alonso mused, "I read I am stopping because I am not competitive, which is partly true. If I was winning all the races I would continue. But it's also true I would not be having the same fun as I am elsewhere."

"I feel extremely lucky and privileged to have my achievements. I feel F1 and the sport gave me a lot and I don't think too much on the downside of how many more championships I could have."

"It is true - maybe with five or seven points more I could be five times world champion. But on the other hand I could have zero world championships, and zero wins or zero podiums because F1 is an extremely competitive environment. So I just take the positives and I am happy with my achievements."

Alonso departs the top flight with two F1 world championships while coming close to two or three more, but victories have dried up since 2013 when he last won a grand prix.

His final years in F1 will be remembered as the very lean years, the Spaniard banked on the Honda and McLaren partnership delivering more victories and titles, but he backed the wrong horse.

Alosno acknowledged, "There is nothing you can do. You obviously believe in your team and their performance and their projects."

"Even if you have a difficult season, you still believe the following year will be better and a good one. It didn't happen. It didn't happen in Ferrari in the last years and it didn't happen in McLaren the last four seasons."

"But even with that, or despite that, we still showed probably some commitment and determination to keep fighting, whatever the result was that particular weekend."

"And at the same time, thanks to this lack of performance, I explored different categories outside F1 and I discovered a beautiful thing with the Indy 500, or this year I am lucky to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans."

"It is true I am eighth in the world championship and I will not fight for this year's title. But right now in September, on the F1 grid I am the most successful driver because I won the Le Mans 24 Hours and even the title contenders now, they won nothing now."

"In November one of them will be world champion. The second one it will be a worse season than Fernando had. So maybe only one man will be happier than me in November. And I am happy for that."

Alonso, who is campaigning with Toyota Gazoo Racing in the WEC, says F1 is too predictable these days, another big factor in his decision to quit, "Only two teams or two drivers will win the Monza Grand Prix or Singapore or Abu Dhabi. The other [drivers] will just follow the recommendations of the engineers."

"These cars are made to drive in a very efficient way, that you need to control the batteries and tyres and everything they need to tell you from the garage."

"We see there are also a lot of B teams that don't get in the way of the A team to don't disturb too much and have all the benefits. That's one thing.

"The calendar is tough - 21 races, most of them outside Europe. When I joined F1 I was 19 years old, full of energy. You had 16 grands prix and most of them in Europe. It was a demanding, tough life but now it is just total commitment and dedication to F1."

"Now at 37-years-old and having already achieved some good results, it is time for me to finish F1 with a good feeling and good performance and taking my own decisions," added Alonso ahead of his 305th grand prix start at Monza on Sunday.