The extraordinary Verstappen statistic that painfully exposes Ferrari's problem

The most recent Formula 1 triple header was an interesting one, with races in the United States, Mexico and Brazil, with a familiar picture of Max Verstappen winning, claiming his his 15th, 16th and 17th wins of the year.

During two of those three Grands Prix, Verstappen did not take pole, losing the fastest time in Austin due to breaching track limits while US-pole-sitter Charles Leclerc was just plain faster next time out in Mexico City.

Verstappen denied Leclerc a hat-trick in Sao Paulo, getting his pole lap in seconds before that storm arrived, bringing with it biblical rain.

However, on each race day, Verstappen was 25 seconds (before Leclerc's DSQ) clear in the US, 23 ahead by the flag in Mexico and 50 seconds clear of Carlos Sainz at Interlagos, following Leclerc's DNS following hydraulic failure and formation lap crash.

Those two wins in the US and Mexico also brought up an usual statistic as Verstappen reached double digits in the 'wins from a Leclerc pole position' category.

They were Leclerc's 21st and 22nd pole positions, with the wins being Verstappen's ninth and 10th, respectively from the Monegasque's poles.

For reference, four of Leclerc's five wins have come from pole - with his most recent win in Austria 2022 the only one not to come from P1 on the grid.

Ferrari knows where deficit is

Ferrari's deficit to Red Bull is in terms of race pace, with Leclerc knowing he cannot challenge the RB19 over the race distance, even if he has a potent weapon on a Saturday.

“It's always nice, but at the same time, for me, it matters the most on Sunday and in races,” he told media including RacingNews365.

"At this time we don't we don't really have the car in order to make those pole positions a win, or at least a really good result on Sunday. So we really have to work on that.

"That's where we are all focusing at the moment, to try and find performance coming the race, and we've still got quite a bit of work to do."