"It is a logical explanation" - Red Bull gives these reasons for Mercedes' loss of competitiveness

Red Bull's Helmut Marko claims the newly introduced E10 fuel might be a cause of Mercedes' loss of competitiveness. The Austrian also claims the German team cannot rely solely on their power unit in 2022, causing them to fall down the grid order.

Ferrari and Red Bull are the teams to beat in 2022, with the Silver Arrows going through a rough phase due to porpoising problems. While many are wondering why Mercedes is unable to provide a competitive car to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claims the reason could be due to the new E10 fuel that was introduced this season.

He told Motorsport.com:

“The hybrid era was conditioned by the superiority of their power unit - he explained - initially I think they were two seconds faster but they kept it all hidden. Today the differences between the engines are not that great, and Mercedes-powered teams can no longer turn a knob and solve their problems."

Marko added about the E10 fuel:

“I can't say exactly, but I think there is a link. It is a logical explanation, personally I believe that everything is related to the new gasoline".

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Mercedes claim solving porpoising is their 'number one priority'

Mercedes claim that tackling the porpoising problem is still their number one priority moving forward into the 2022 season. The team has had a disappointing start to the season, failing to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull so far.

The German team's progress in the new season has been significantly hampered by the new porpoising problem caused due to the 2022 aero regulations.The team has been unable to see the W13's true pace due to the intense bouncing problem both drivers are facing. However, Toto Wolff claims there are multiple parts on the W13 that do not work as they ought to.

The German team's head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin told Motorsport.com about the team's priority list going forward, saying:

“That’s [porpoising] probably priority number one. Because that’s ultimately preventing us from running the car where we’d like to run it for optimum performance."

"What we don’t know is, if we could just magically make that issue vanish, where would we actually be in terms of car pace: is the car fast enough or not? And it’s very difficult to answer that question.”

Only time will tell if the Silver Arrows will be able to solve the numerous issues that have plagued their cars so far in the new season. As it looks right now, Mercedes have a long way to go before they threaten to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.