As we enter the final few races of Fernando Alonso’s Formula 1 career, there is a strange mix of emotions throughout the paddock when it comes to hi꧟s pending departure.

Some are glad to see the back of him, given the regular airing of complaints about the current state of F1. Others agree with Alonso’s diagnosis, going as far as🤡 saying that F1 has failed him 🍸by not being competitive enough to ensure that he is able to put his undeniable talent to good use and fight for wins and world championships.

The latter theory was supporte♏d by his compatriot and 2019 McLaren replacement, Carlos Sainz Jr., last month in Mexico. “To not have one of the best drivers or the best 🥂driver in motorsport on the grid at the moment is a big loss,” Sainz said.

“So I think it is something for Formula 1 and everyone t💝o consider, why one of the best drivers is leaving, and why we cannot have a bit more competitive grid where many drivers can fight for wins or for podiums.

“I think it’s a thing to consi♋der and something t✅o think about for the future.”

The lack of competition in F1 is a widely-recognised and discussed ♉problem. Not since🅷 the start of 2013 has a team outside the ‘big three’ of Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull won a race. But the exit of Fernando Alonso should not be the wake-up call for F1 to try and fix that.

Frankly, we need to stop feeling sorry f꧒or Alonso. After all, he’s quitting on his own terms.

His reasons for leaving F1 are well-documented, the Spaniard citing soon after his announcement in August that he was uninspired by the current on♌-track action and state of🌳 the sport, prompting him to explore other interests such as sports car and Indy car racing. He isn’t leaving with feelings of regret. He claims he isn’t leaving because he 𒐪was n🎐ot able to get a competitive car, stressing for a long time that h⛦e could have secured a top F1 drive for 2019 if he wanted🎉 to stay.

Alonso has been saying this much since August, yet the same questions are being askeꦓd: is his departure proof that F1 has to change?

Growing tired of the repetitive nature ▨ofꦆ the line of questioning, Alonso finally snapped back on Thursday in Mexico when Sainz’s comments were put forward to him.

“I’m not stopping because I don’t have a com✤petitive car. I’ve been saying the same thing from 𓂃August,” Alonso exasperated.

“I’m stopping because I did everything I wanted in Formula 1. I arrived in Formula 1, I won grands prix in Formula 1, I won world championships in Formula 1, I break records in Formula 1. I drove for McLaren, for Renault, for Ferrari. I꧋ have 37 years, and I cannot do more in Formula 1.

"All the things that I dreamed of in Formula 1, are done. There are new things in motorsport that are bigger than🍃 Formula 1.

“From August, it’s the same thing: ‘It’s a shame, and Formula 1 should look that Fernando has to stop.’ I stop because I want to, not because I’ve been forced to stop. I want to stop because I achieved in Formula 1 more than what I dreamed of, and it’s time ♉to achieve even bi🉐gger things outside of Formula 1.

“In Formula 1, there is always the feeling that here is the biggest thing in the world, and if someone goes, p𒀰eople don’t understand that maybe he wants to go.”

Alonso has a point here. The reason his pursuit of the ‘triple crown of motorsport’ has been so surprising and such an exciting story to follow is because it is not normal nowadays. Drivers tend to stick to a sin⛎gle lane, especially when they are racing in F1, with very few daring to colour outside the lines and try their hand at something else.

There are numerous factorꦓs influencing this, such as concerns about the risk of injury (most infamously changing the career trajectory of Robert Kubica). But for the most part, as F1 is deemed to be the pinnacle of motorsport, why would anyone want to get their kicks racing elsewhere?

Alonso’s formation into a different kind of racer, one who doesn’t want to race solely in F1, may have been the result of his own decision-making. Had he been fighting for world cha💛mpionships for the past four years, which combined with greater success at Ferrari could have put him close to the kind of figures Lewis Hamilton is now boasting, then the likes of Le Mans and the Ind🐼y 500 may not have been so interesting.

As he said himself when the decision to race at Indy for the first time was made:ꦺ “If I want to be the best driver in the world there are two options: I win eight Formula 1 World Championships, one more than Michael [Schumacher], which is very unlikely. The second one is to win different series in different moments of my career and be a driver that can race and win in any car, in any series.” Option one is not going to happen; option two therefore became the prio💎rity.

Legacy is an important thing for Alonso. He wants to be remembered. He does not simply want to fade out of the sport when the time does come for him to hang up his helmet for gooꩵd. But deep respect is already something he feels from the F1 paddock.

“I feel a lot of respec💜t from all my career in Formula 1. By the team owners and team principals, I’ve been always res🌞pected and highly rated,” Allonso said.

“So I feel very privileged racing for those teams, having the respect from my teammates, the other drivers, you guys, the media, the fans. It has been perfect. Ot’s a perfᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚect time to stop, and I feel perfect now.

“Again, when tomorrow or next week, [people say] it’s a sad thing that I’m leaving, when I had the respect from all the team principals, the teams, I raced for the best manufacturers, I’ve been paid a lot more than when I was in go-karts thinking what my salary in the future… I have a wonderful life, and I arrive to Mexico, and they give 30,000 faces to the grandstand to say b꧒ye-bye. In Abu Dhabi, it will be the same thing. I feel so privileged, I feel so happy, so respected around the world, that I can only say thank you.

“It has been a perfe꧋ct journey, not 🦋a sad journey or a sad end.

“[But] I💃 know that it doesn’t matter wha🍬t I say, because it’s what the general opinion wants to think or wants to sell.”

Maybe Alonso is rig𒈔ht. Maybe the narrative of F1 being in a bad place right now, with his departure being proof of that, is the better sell for some. It's more inflammatory to say that F1🥂 has failed him.

But the truth is that F1 still has a number of extraordinarily good drivers fighting at the front of the pack. The title fights between Mercedes and Ferrari over the past two years have been brilliant. The rivalries🦄 enjoyed between Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and, a few years back, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, will be remembered very fondly. Like Alonso, they will all leave their own legacies, none of which will be dimmed by the current state of the sport.

A new chapter is opening for Alonso that could see him become just the second man in history to complete the trꦆip✃le crown of motorsport. That will leave a very different, yet more individual, legacy than what he could have achieved in the final few years of his F1 career.

So let’s stop feeling sorry for Alonso, and use his exit as a way to belittlꦇe F1 and say it failed him.

Instead, let’s recognise that this is a decision Alonso has taken all by himself, one that he says he is content with, and appreciate his fi꧙n♉al two appearances as a grand prix racer this month.