Verstappen was forced out of an early fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix due to a cylinder failure in his Renault internal combustion engine, which ensures he remains bottom of the drivers in the ‘big three’ teams.

It was his sixth DNF of the season, and also raises the likelihood of a grid penalty for the next race at Monza. Two of Verstappen's retirements have been for collisions, with all seven of Alonso's being for mechanical reasons.

“It’s now 50 per cent of the races [ended] in retirement,” Verstappen told NBC. “It’s unbelievable, like I said on the radio, I just can’t believe that those things happen.

“Of course, in the beginning, you say maybe it’s just bad luck or whatever, [but] I’m actually competing against Fernando in terms of retirements. It’s unbelievable, I’m not happy at all.

“I am very disappointed for retiring and [for] the fans who buy an expensive ticket to watch and I retire after eight laps. No words.”

When asked if this might influence his future plans, and whether he’d consider leaving Red Bull Racing to find a more reliable car, he replied: “To be honest, I’m not even thinking about that, we just need to solve it within the team. Because for a top team those things can’t happen.

“I’m not too worried about the future, what’s happening next year, I just want to finish races and have good results. We worked very hard all weekend, and then again you just retire.

“The results are not happening, so you don’t care about next year or the year after at this time.

“We need to talk. We will always talk about [it]; at the moment I am not a happy person and I look forward to going home.”