Alonso: I was 99% sure 2009 would be my last F1 season

Alonso joined the F1 grid back in 2001 with Minardi but had to settle for a testing role with the newly-branded Renault F1 Team (it was Benetton before that) under the leadership of Flavio Briatore.

In 2002, he became a full-time F1 driver for Renault and went on to win the 2005 and 2006 F1 drivers' crowns with them before moving to McLaren in 2007, joining then-rookie Lewis Hamilton at the British team.

Alonso initially had a three-year contract with McLaren, but after a season of bitter clashes with Hamilton and McLaren boss Ron Dennis, the double F1 champion left in 2008 and returned to Renault, where he remained until the end of 2009.

He switched to Ferrari in 2010 and stayed there until the end of the 2014 season, and while he failed to achieve title glory with them, he came close on a couple of occasions in an era that was dominated by Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso went back to McLaren in 2015, the Woking team now powered by Honda, but that ended up being a disastrous stint that ended in 2018 when he retired.

Between 2018 and 2020, Alonso raced in the World Endurance Championship with Toyota winning the 2018-2019 title and also winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019 while also trying his hand at IndyCar and Dakar rallying.

F1 retirement did not last long for Alonso, as he rejoined the grid with Alpine in 2021 but moved to Aston Martin in 2022, replacing Vettel, and continues to drive for them; his contract runs till the end of 2026.

Reflecting on taking part in his 400th F1 race, Alonso told Beyond The Grid podcast: "To reach 400 now is a big number.

And while admitting that traveling to 24 races a season is demanding, he insisted that he "pays off all the sacrifices" being in the cockpit of an F1 car and claimed: "It’s a way of demonstrating my passion for the sport and for F1."

The 43-year-old said his longevity in F1 shows how much he loves racing; he explained: "Knowing that no one reached that number in the past, maybe someone does in the future, but not many.

"Let’s say a group of five or 10 maximum, it just demonstrates my love for racing, for F1, how much I enjoy this lifestyle, motor racing in general."

Alonso revealed he had no clear plan earlier in his F1 career, as he was just taking it one step at a time. He continued: "I think that guy in 2001, I was not really thinking too much in the future. The dream was coming alive, driving [in] F1, the first race.

"I didn’t have a clear roadmap into my career. I didn’t know exactly what was the next race, what will be my next team. I was improvising [and] every weekend was a new adventure.

"What I would say is that when I won the championship in 2006 and then I joined McLaren, I had a three-year contract for 2007, ’08 and ’09, and I was 99% sure that 2009 would be my last F1 season. That was my very clear plan in my head.

"When I signed that contract, in my head at that time, it was like a long-term contract and three years will feel maybe long, but this is the last," he added. "I already fulfilled my dream. This is beyond my wildest imagination to be an F1 champion, so what else can I do here?

"I signed this contract with McLaren, hoped to win more championships, hoped to win more races, but after F1 there is a different life outside. I was thinking I will have a family, I will do normal things, normal days.

"I don’t think that the 19-year-old, Minardi 2001 Fernando will think something strange about the 400 Grands Prix, because I was not thinking too much in the future, but in 2007, for sure, this would be a surprise," Alonso concluded.

Alonso had amassed two F1 titles, 32 wins, 74 podiums, 22 pole positions, and 2329 points in his career in the top flight so far.