Despite the, albeit tortuously slow, improvement to the McLaren-Honda package, Fernando Alonso's frustration has been all too obvious over the last couple of years.

Three-time runner-up with Ferrari, few would argue that the Spaniard should have more to show for his talent than the two titles won with Renault.

However, Alonso's frustration goes beyond the limits of the McLaren-Honda, beyond those seasons with Ferrari, indeed, they are with the Formula itself, the Spaniard feeling that F1 has lost its way.

"These days F1 is in a time of highs and lows," he told Italian magazine Autosprint, "the series' direction isn't clear.

"I'm not at all happy with some things that are happening," he continued. "We can never drive the cars to their real limit; we can never attack as much as we would like because the tyres don't allow you to. If you push too hard they overheat, and lose grip immediately. If you use the engine too much, you step over consumption parameters.

"To be quick in today's F1, you must not attack too much, that's the secret, but that's something against a driver's instincts. That is why current cars aren't as pleasing to drive compared to other eras, when the technical rule book was different.

"This situation doesn't make me happy," he admits. "I'm not saying current cars are easier to drive, but they are from a physical point of view or in finding the car's true limit. That's because before, when you were attacking a turn, the speed mid-turn was so high that you really had to trust your car, trust that it would handle it. With less grip, it's easier to find the grip's limit.

"Before, after ten laps you had to have a two-hour massage, while now you can drive 150 laps and barely sweat."

The Spaniard has another season with McLaren, and aside from wanting to see a marked improvement in the team's package in 2017, Alonso is looking to the new regulations to make the sport more exciting again, especially for the drivers.

"Many things will change next year, so let's hope the joy of driving will return to be a major factor," he said. "If I see F1 carries on going in a different direction compared to what I knew and loved in the recent past, then at that point I could consider other alternatives and leave F1.

"Le Mans would be the option closest to my driving style, and to what I've always done," he admitted. "The Indy 500 is a fascinating, radical change because you must learn a completely different driving style and way of thinking. Nevertheless, I'd be open and ready to learn it because when you have been F1 world champion there are only two other races that are equivalent, prestige-wise, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500.

"In any case it would be an idea, a plan that would be really long term in order to be turned to reality."

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