Fernando Alonso says his decision to retire from Formula 1 was rooted in the sports' poor on-track action, admitting that Grand Prix racing was no longer the "dream" it was when he joined.
The Spaniard will be moving on from F1 at the end of the 2018 season, his ambitions of winning a third world title having dissipated over the course of a fruitless four-year period with McLaren.
Yet Alonso invokes his disenchanted with the sport rather than with his results as the reason for bringing down the curtain on a career spanning 17 years at the pinnacle of motorsport.
"The action on track is not the one I dreamed of when I joined F1, or when I was in different series, or the action on track that I experienced in other years," said Alonso, speaking at Silverstone ahead of this weekend’s WEC round with Toyota.
"I stopped because the action on track in my opinion I feel is very poor. In fact, what we talk about more in F1, is off track.
"We talk about polemics. We talk about radio messages. We talk about all these things, and when we talk so many times about those things, it is a bad sign.
"It is because the on-track action was very poor on that weekend, and that is what I feel in F1 now, and I think there are other series that maybe offer better action, more joy and more happiness, so that is what I try to find."
Alonso compared his current unsuccessful bout in F1 with previous winless periods that he encountered, with the underlining difference marked by today's predictability of Grand Prix racing.
"When I was in 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011, I was not winning [many] races in those years. But it was difficult to predict what could happen in Spa and Monza," explained Alonso.
"Now, we can write down what is going to happen at Spa and Monza. We can put the first 15 positions with maybe one or two mistakes. So how predictable everything became is tough.
With regard to the 2004 season Alonso's references, we'll kindly remind the Spaniard that Michael Schumacher's domination was hegemonic that year, the Ferrari driver winning 13 of the 18 races, killing off with each win any sense of unpredictability.
"We go to Barcelona and we test the first day of winter testing and you know what you will do until November in Abu Dhabi and it is tough," he added.
"For me, it is not too much of a problem because after 18 years, as I said before, I achieved more than what I dreamed of.
"But for young drivers or different drivers, it is tough because they just hope that next year the team does an unbelievable step or they receive a call from one or two teams. It became difficult for ambitious drivers.
"[For] a driver with some kind of ambition, it will be tough for the future if things don’t change."
All signs are pointing to IndyCar as Alonso's next green pasture, but the 37-year-old isn't ruling out a return to F1, simply because he feels he is driving at his best level ever.
"I think the door open is more because I think I am driving at the best level of my career now," he said. "And why to close doors if anything could happen in the future?
"I am still young. I am not 45 years old. I feel strong and I am doing this year 27 races, so my thinking is to stop. And that is why I stop. But who knows? That is the reason why."
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