Ex-Formula 1 driver Mark Webber believes that Max Verstappen will emerge stronger from his current rough patch of form, saying the Dutchman has to "throw eggs against the wall" to improve as a driver.

Verstappen suffered his fourth retirement in the last six races in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leaving him a distant sixth in the F1 drivers' championship with less than half the points of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Verstappen's current struggles mark his first real rough run since entering F1 in 2015, but Webber thinks they will help him to grow and develop as a driver.

"He's still so young. He doesn't know how much more he's going to learn yet, which is a frightening thing," Webber told reporters at the FIA Sport Conference in Geneva.

"He's still putting the jigsaw together. The only way he can do it is throw eggs against the wall, and that's going grand prix racing, so he's doing that right now. He's on fire there.

"He likes the outside at Turn 1, it's a bit of a Fernando [Alonso] move, which paid off in Montreal, but didn't pay off in Barcelona, where they were three-wide.

"So there are a few things like that which he'll look at how and when he's going to manage that going forward.

"But he's a phenomenal talent and he's on fire at the moment."