Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the outfit's 2023 contender may not look significantly different than this year's car, but it will have a different "DNA".
Formula 1's 2022 regulation overhaul has left Mercedes without a single win to its name so far this season, and with only three races left to evade that shortfall.
The Brackley squad has worked tirelessly to mitigate the porpoising and bouncing issues that undermined its car's performance in the first part of the season.
Although the team has enjoyed steady progress since the beginning of the summer, its W13 silver arrow remains a difficult beast to tame.
Back at Mercedes' base, armed with the many lessons and knowledge their troubled campaigned has delivered, the team's engineers are hard at work on next season's silver arrow.
"I think the DNA of the car is going to change for next year – that is clear", Wolff told the media in Austin.
"It doesn't necessarily mean that the bodywork is going to look very different, but certainly what is part of the DNA of the car – the architecture will change for next year."
Wolff alluded to Mercedes' innovative zero-sidepod concept, which was initially believed to have been responsible for the W13's erratic behaviour and downforce issues.
But as the season unfolded and the team's understanding of its car's complexities improved, Mercedes' engineers pinpointed a design feature of the W13's floor as the root cause of its aerodynamic problems.
©Mercedes
Excessive drag and a straight-line speed deficit relative to its rivals have significantly weighed on Mercedes' performance all season long.
But a silver lining of sorts linked to the German outfit's position in the Constructors' standings behind Red Bull and Ferrari is the extra wind tunnel time allocated to Mercedes for 2023.
Finishing third in the championship will equate to 14% more wind tunnel time than Red Bull and even more versus Ferrari.
"In all of 2021, we were the leading team and then we won the Constructors' Championship," Wolff explained.
"So for half of 2022, we had 7% less wind tunnel time throughout these 18 months to Red Bull and much less than Ferrari.
"Now it will be the other way around – we're going to have 14% more as we finished third – so that over time is exactly what the regulations were designed for, to give us the potential to eke the advantage out, to claw it back."
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