At the end of the season, Alonso declared 2023 to be his best in Formula 1, alongside 2012 when he fell four points shy of securing a third drivers’ championship.

In joining forces with Aston Martin, the team delivered its best season since its inception as Force India in 2008, scoring 225 more points than it did last year when it was a lowly seventh in the constructors’ standings.

Alonso played his part in revitalising the team, notably scoring six podiums in the first eight races en route to finishing fourth in the drivers’ standings, his best placing for a decade.

The 42-year-old concedes he now has more love for F1 than in recent years for the obvious reason that “motivation always comes with results”.

He added: “You cannot hide this fact, even if you are very motivated, even if you are very determined to achieve things.

“If the results do not come in the medium to long term, it is impossible to always keep up the motivation.

“To be competitive, to feel the speed again, and to arrive into the weekends knowing that you need to do everything perfect because there is a podium possibility, a race win possibility, that gives you a very different approach and a very different love for the things you do, and dedication.”

After one year into a two-season contract, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has already made clear his desire to extend the partnership beyond the end of 2024.

For now, Alonso does not see his racing capabilities diminishing which could prevent that from happening.

Instead, it will be the toll exacted upon him by next year’s record-breaking 24-race calendar, expanded by the fact the Chinese Grand Prix returns after a five-year absence due to the Covid pandemic, as well as the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola following its cancellation earlier this season due to devastating flooding.

Asked whether he could ‘go on and on’, he replied: “I’ve said many times, even before 2018 (when he retired for the first time), that the day I will stop racing is not because I don’t feel motivated to drive, or I feel slow.

“If I feel slow then I think it will be noticeable and I will be not happy with my performance. I will then be the first one to raise my hand to say ‘Okay, this is time’.

“But I honestly don’t think that time will arrive, in terms of feeling slow, because I have extreme self-confidence in my performance.

“It could be, with the calendar and with the demanding schedule and things like that, then one day I will feel that it’s time because there are other things in life.

“It has been a very demanding season, with 22 races with two cancellations. Next year with 24, the proper calendar, we have to see how it feels.

“These kinds of things will drain my battery, not driving.”

Three-time champion Verstappen has suggested on occasions this year that F1’s constant tinkering with the calendar, which now includes six sprints, could force him out at the end of his contract with Red Bull that runs to the end of 2028.

Initially confirming feeling the same way as Verstappen, Alonso then added: “But you never know.

“I felt that way as well in 2006 or 2007. I remember signing for McLaren in 2007 on a three-year contract, and I thought at that time it was my last contract – and here we are – so I cannot say anything for the future now.”