Alonso insists that he 'wants to deserve his legacy'

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Fernando Alonso may have two world championships under his belt, but his sights are firmly set on proving that he fully deserves his place in the annals of Formula 1.

Alonso celebrated 300 Grand Prix weekends in Canada, but he has been through a difficult period since joining McLaren in 2015. He hasn't won a race since his home event in 2013 with Ferrari.

Aware that his time in the support will soon be at an end, Alonso still has much to prove before he bows out.

"I will not be happy if I have many trophies at home and people think that I don't deserve them," he said this week.

He added that it didn't matter that he had fewer titles and race wins to his credit than other top names in the sport. "In a way it's better this way.

"Obviously we had some opportunities missed," he acknowledged. "Especially in the last three years with McLaren-Honda, which didn't deliver the results we wanted.

"Right now we are in the right direction to go back to the winning path," he added. "But we'll see at the end of my career in F1 what we achieve, and what we should achieve.

Alonso mixes with the locals at Le Mans

Alonso is racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours race this week with Toyota. Many fans believe that he could make the switch to endurance racing full time next season if McLaren looks no closer to winning in F1.

It's also rumoured that McLaren will set up a new team in the US Verizon IndyCar Series open wheel championship, which could be another avenue for Alonso.

But right now, Alonso says he is still firmly committed to Formula 1.

"In terms of team spirit or learning it is part of your personality and part of your process in this sport that you need to live this kind of moment and try to rebuild a team and a structure like McLaren from nearly zero after 2015.

"Now the direction is definitely the right one and we are getting closer and closer to the top guys. But there's still a long way to go.

"There are a lot of experiences off-track, of 18 years in Formula 1, and more or less with the same people around. Same mechanics, media, team-mates.

"[I've had] a lot of fun so far in this journey, and hopefully many more things to come."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.