Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso are at different stages of their career but both have been successful in F1Credit: Reuters

But he is already thinking about other motorsport categories he can compete in when he chooses to leave the sport for the second time.

And despite his far younger age, Verstappen has already made noises himself about what he plans to do after F1.

Alonso admitted he liked the idea of the two – who are arguably Lewis Hamilton’s greatest F1 rivals – joining forcing for the historic 24 of Le Mans endurance race.

He told De Telegraaf: “I know Max wants to do some endurance one day and I know he’d like to do the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“I’m certainly open to doing that together. I think we should give the idea a chance if we can drive for a competitive team.”

Alonso was also asked about driving with Verstappen’s father Jos instead with Jos, at 50, being closer to Alonso’s age than Max.

But Alonso joked: “His father for Le Mans? At the moment, I prefer Max.

“But I also have a lot of respect for Jos. He could develop the role of team principal!”

Both Alonso and Verstappen have two World Championships, with the former’s coming with Renault in 2005 and 2006 while the latter’s won his with Red Bull in 2021 and this year.

In that time, both have struck up fierce rivalries with Hamilton at either stage of his career.

The seven-times World Champion was teammates with Alonso in 2007 at McLaren but the pair were often at loggerheads and allowed Kimi Raikkonen to sneak his Ferrari to that year’s World Championship.

And in 2021, Hamilton and Verstappen engaged in a title duel for the ages that saw dangerous crashes, more dangerous crashes and eventually the most dramatic and controversial lap of racing the sport had ever seen.