The Dutchman and teammate Daniel Ricciardo had looked well set to fight for the win at the Marina Bay circuit after showing strong pace in qualifying.

But Verstappen's race was over at the first corner after he was involved in a collision with the Ferraris, while Ricciardo suffered a gearbox problem in the race that left him unable to properly threaten race winner Lewis Hamilton.

With Red Bull having been hoping to add a second triumph this year after Ricciardo won in Baku, Verstappen does not think that on pure pace terms there will as good an opportunity over the remainder of the campaign.

Asked about form over the remaining races, Verstappen said: "Not as strong as at this track."

Pushed on perhaps Abu Dhabi being its best opportunity, Verstappen said: "No, there are too many straights there. This was of course our best chance to get a good result – and that didn't happen.

"But the whole year things haven't gone my way. So maybe it needs to happen a couple of more times and then maybe you have a couple of years where everything goes really well for you."

Latest retirement

Verstappen's retirement from Singapore is not the first time he has gone out on the opening lap this year – having been involved in early collisions in Spain and Austria too.

But after a run of disappointments, Verstappen has said that there is little point getting angry about what has happened to him – which is why he is remaining calm for now.

"That's the way I've been brought up," he said. "I wasn't allowed to do this and I've never done this: especially in a situation where you can't do anything about it yourself, then it's also completely unnecessary.

"Look, if you are fighting for the championship and in the last race you throw it away yourself, then it's a completely different situation. Maybe then you will throw something, to release the anger.

"But I'm not in that situation, I didn't do anything wrong myself and it's just been a year where everything goes wrong on Sunday."