It was Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain, and Sebastian Vettel in China.

Max Verstappen just can’t avoid colliding with his main rivals right now.

The Red Bull driver was forced to retire on just the second lap in Bahrain after attempting an undertake of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, and a similarly risky move on Vettel resulted in a 10-second penalty in China.

Verstappen is viewed as a future world champion, but even his father can’t defend him after the latest incident, which leaves the 20-year-old eighth in the Drivers’ Championship standings after three races.

“The overtake on Vettel really wasn't on. It wasn't possible. It was an error of judgement,” Jos Verstappen said on Ziggo Sport's Peptalk show, per the Mail.

“In some circumstances Max just has to think more. I don't want him to change his driving style.

“But we don't want to see these kinds of actions. He needs to have it under control. He needs to think.”

Rosberg speaks out

Nico Rosberg, who knows what it takes to beat Hamilton to a world championship, claimed on Sunday that Verstappen is “too aggressive”, and he’s since followed up on those thoughts in a video on his YouTube account.

In Rosberg’s opinion, Verstappen will never be a champion until he cuts out the mistakes.

“Verstappen, he’s one of the big talents out there and has a great future but driving like the way he is at the moment he’s not going to be able to be world champion because he makes so many mistakes,” Rosberg said.

“Five mistakes now in three races. Five major mistakes, it’s too much.

“It was one of those extremely hard days for a young driver because you take out the world championship leader, you take yourself out, get a penalty, you’re 100 per cent at fault and your team-mate wins the race in an unbelievably awesome way, that is a hard day.

“That is painful. Those are the days where a young driver like Max will hopefully really learn and make progress and adapt.”

This is all part of the learning process for Verstappen. If there’s ever a good time to make mistakes, he’d rather make them now than when he's in a position to win a title.