Although much of its work is on aerodynamic and mechanical improvements to tame the bouncing that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are suffering from, it has not made the mistake of throwing all its efforts behind that single issue.
Instead, it has made sure to keep up with as much regular development as it can to ensure that it is properly positioned to capitalise on things when it finally cures its chief problem.
That is why a glance at the configuration of its car at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix showed a new stay protruding from its mirror solution, something that appears tiny in the grand scheme of things but is evidence of the mindset Mercedes has adopted.
The new stay appeared for the first time below the Side Impact Structure (SIS) fairing that has housed the team's mirror solution this year.
Much like the German car manufacturer's use of the segmented stay arrangement on the upper surface of the SIS, which proved to be controversial when rival teams first saw them, the new surface is redundant from a support perspective. Instead, its intent is entirely aerodynamic.
Just like those segmented surfaces used to influence the airflow on the upper surface of the SIS, which are also a feature used by AlphaTauri, this new surface fits within the confines of the bounding boxes set out in the regulations.
This means that while there could be some debate about whether or not the stay is really necessary to act as a mirror support, it is fully legal within the wording of the F1 regulations.
The change is tiny and probably inconsequential from a performance point of view with so much of the W13's pace dependent on the porpoising problem, but the team is clear that it has to keep updating its car as much as possible right now.
Asked by Motorsport.com about why Mercedes has produced something that seems so insignificant to the overall issues the team is facing, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: "It is a very, very small change.
"But when you have a car that's difficult to work with and not quick enough, you don't want to hold all your bread and butter development work in the tunnel because that's just time lost.
"If you stop for a month, you'll be the equivalent to that behind, in terms of development, by the end of the year.
"So one of the challenges that we're facing now, which is really new to us in the last few years, is you're trying to solve some major problems, fundamental issues with the bouncing or the ride of the car, at the same time as making sure that you can keep putting performance on."
Shovlin concedes that even small car updates could end up playing a big role in the aerodynamic influence of its porpoising, but it still is ultimately better off keeping the developments rolling through.
"We are trying to avoid doing things that might confuse the picture," he added
"But then equally, we look at the parts and we think well, we can just put that on and we know that the effect will be a very small step in the right direction.
"Those kinds of bits are insignificant, but typical of the kinds of things we've got to keep doing to make sure that we're not stood still."
Ferrari tweaks
Mercedes was not the only team to tweak its mirror design in Baku, with Ferrari also introducing changes for a small aerodynamic gain, following in the footsteps of many others on the grid who have a similar solution.
Rather than having a sinuous attachment point on the side of the cockpit transition (inset), there's now a vertical surface on top of the cockpit transition that the horizontal portion of the mirror stay intersects with.
However, it does it in a way that creates a fin to help guide the airflow.
