The Australian had come into the Chinese Grand Prix off the back of a difficult start to the season, where he had been struggling for pace against team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and facing questions over his future.
With no obvious explanation for his difficulties, the team believed a well-timed change of chassis for this weekend would at least be able to tick that issue off as a factor in his form.
And having delivered perhaps his strongest weekend of the year against Tsunoda, who has been struggling to find a good set-up, Ricciardo says he has noticed things feeling different this weekend.
However, he believed it was far too early to make a judgement immediately on whether the chassis change was behind the gains or if it was something else.
“It feels like a more normal weekend,” said Ricciardo, who has qualified 12th for Sunday’s Chinese GP.
“I would say from the get-go, from yesterday morning, we kind of just felt like we're in a better place and everything came - I don't want to say easier, because that sounds too easy - but yeah, it just kind of came a bit more seamlessly so far this weekend. It's encouraging, obviously.
“We did change chassis, [but] I don't want to jump on that yet and be like, it's definitely that. Obviously, we need to prove that over the course of a few races. But yeah, there was obviously something with the change this weekend.
“So far, it's been my best weekend of the year. So, whether it's that or whether it's just I've always kind of done well around here, we'll see. We'll see in Miami, and Imola and maybe the next few [races] if it continues.”
Source: Autosport