The German carmaker has introduced a number of updates to the Miami event, including a revised front wing end plate and a low rear wing compression package.
These changes helped George Russell finish his second practice on Friday as the team enjoyed its most competitive day of the campaign to date.
But despite choosing Mercedes for Saturday, which meant he dropped as Lewis Hamilton finished sixth in the grid, team boss Toto Wolff expressed some optimism about his progress.
And after being adamant so far in his belief that the W13 concept would be introduced when the team climbed to the top of the jump, he remained adamant that Miami had proven that the team was right to keep its faith in it.
Asked at what point Mercedes will abandon the idea and shift its focus to next year, Wolf said: “We believe our concept has the potential to compete ahead. But it is also a sensitive concept.
“Once it’s in the window, it can work very well, but it’s very difficult to get it in that window because the floor is obviously much more exposed than other cars.
“We still believe in this direction that it is right and we will have another set of data [in the race] and in Barcelona, which will be good for correlation work from the test with our launch vehicle.
“Then comes the moment when we have to decide what we will do next year. But it’s not like you’re writing off one season to focus on the next, because the rules are the same.
“I just think our understanding is growing every day, we’ve already said that this is another experimental weekend. Friday was good, not Saturday. “
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
The team’s form this year was limited by the extreme positivity that W13 suffers from.
And while there was a bigger bounce on Friday, Wolfe said the change in setting that triggered him helped him understand what turns the phenomenon on and off.
“On Friday we saw the presentation of the car, if we find it in the right place,” he said.
“The main thing was to drive the guinea pig again – and that was good on Friday. Then we tried something that didn’t seem like a big change and had a bad effect on her car [put us] all the way back.
“At the end of the qualification, the pilots were injured again by jumping and jumping has such an effect on the brake zones and what the tires do, with the consequence that we are in sixth and 12th place.
“Learning is exponentially difficult right now, but we would hope for better.”
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