The Silverstone-based squad has been in the chasing pack behind Red Bull this season, but its prospects of putting up a better fight against Ferrari and McLaren have been hurt by its car not being as competitive in races as it is in qualifying thanks to tyre management struggles.
It is an area that the team has been focusing hard on in the early stage of the campaign, with driver Fernando Alonso praising an "aggressive" development programme that has been unleashed to help improve matters.
For the Japanese Grand Prix, the squad's AMR24 features changes in two key areas – a sidepod revision that appears to be heavily influenced by Red Bull, plus changes in the floor area.
Asked about if the changes were aimed at pure performance or to help improve its tyre degradation issues, Alonso said: "They are both linked. More downforce will address also the tyre degradation we have.
"So far we have been very aggressive on the development of the car. [There was] a new part in Jeddah on the front suspension, a tweak on the front wing in Australia and now another package.
"Every race we've been driving a different car, which is a good sign of what we want to achieve this year - being very aggressive off track.
"Last year, we learned a lesson, starting very good and then not changing the car enough was painful in the second part of the season.
"This year, hopefully we are a little bit stronger on the second half compared to the first half. But let's see."