Mercedes has a raft of car changes at Formula 1's Imola round after going without "particularly enormous or sexy" upgrades for the first quarter of the season.
Technical director James Allison had noted after the previous race in Miami that smaller developments had been "coming in a steady trickle" over the opening grands prix but revealed there would be "some that will be more obvious to the outside world in the next handful of races".
At Imola, upgrades on the W16 have now broken cover ahead of Friday practice.
There are changes to the front suspension leg fairings around where the upper wishbone legs mount to the chassis, which now have a notable upwards flick akin to McLaren.
Mercedes says this reprofiling is to improve aerodynamic robustness in a variety of conditions, improving flow to the rear of the car and consequently floor load.
Mercedes also has a largely new front wing with changes to its chord length and span by reprofiling the individual elements. This produces "a change in upwash field behind the wing, resulting in improved onset flow to the rear".
Finally, there is new profiling at the back of the engine cover, with a subtle change to the coke bottle area to improve flow to the rear wing for extra load while also improving engine cooling efficiency.
Allison had previously said that the upgrades coming across this triple-header - with more potentially on the way, perhaps related to the flexi-wing rule change that will come into force for the last of the three races at Barcelona - will hopefully "move the dial a bit for us".
Mercedes has established itself in second in the constructors' championship but is 105 points behind McLaren and owes its position to good, consistent scoring from both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, whereas Red Bull has been hamstrung by only having Max Verstappen in contention at the front so far.
While the W16 has been solid enough for Russell to score podiums in four of the six races so far, it has not been good enough to challenge McLaren, which Russell said is the "outlier".
"Being realistic, it's not possible for us to find that amount of laptime," Russell said of 2025 developments and trying to chase down McLaren.
"But of course, in Barcelona you have the changes to the TD [technical directive] with the flexible front wings, and McLaren have clearly been the best at this.
"So maybe from Barcelona onwards they come back towards us and things can change again."
Russell said "we don't seem in a bad place" but admitted at Imola "certainly our quali pace is better than our race pace and that's something that we need to find a better balance with".
This is especially so at hotter races as, when tyre temperature management has been a bigger factor, Mercedes has struggled against Red Bull and Ferrari at times.
That is why Allison said after Miami it is not just a case of bringing upgrades to add sheer aerodynamic performance, there are also efforts "to try to work on the tyre temperature in the races, that will also improve our fortunes".
"We're finding it pretty straightforward to get the tyres very happy for a single lap, and balanced from front to rear," said Allison.
"That tends to mean that the drivers are confident to lean on the car in qualifying.
"But come the race, the tyres are running hotter than we would wish, meaning that the drivers have to then slow down to manage the tyre temperatures.
"With a bit of luck, the upgrades might make that [qualifying performance] a bit better still. But the main thing we'll be focusing on is trying to get that race pace under control, trying to make sure that we deliver on the promise of our Saturdays on the Sunday.
"The majority of that will be about controlling the temperature of those tyres and making sure the car can therefore use the pace that's in it."
