The Australian and new teammate Max Verstappen showed on Saturday in Barcelona that Red Bull has one of the best chassis of the field, emerging as Mercedes' closest challenger in qualifying.

Ricciardo qualified third ahead of Verstappen, both men outpacing the Ferraris.

With Renault introducing a big engine upgrade in Canada, Ricciardo feels Red Bull could be in a position to win on tracks where power is not so crucial.

"I think there will still be a little more, but sure on some circuits it could be enough," said Ricciardo of the Canadian GP update.

"So if we were to have it here, for example, I think there's still 0.6s off Lewis today so I don't think we're expecting 0.6s from the upgrade so we would probably still not quite be there but it would certainly put us a lot closer.

"Monaco and Budapest, some of these tighter circuits, I think (it) would give us a real shot, so hanging out for the next few races, really."

He added: "This is really the first track of the year that we've probably, all of us, put on the majority of downforce that we currently have on the car and it's shown our strengths are coming back.

"I think for us, as a team, we've shown signs already this year and today that's shown again. That we do have a good car underneath us and it'll be interesting come even tighter, twistier circuits.

"Monaco in a few weeks' time will be interesting: should be fun."

Ricciardo, however, downplayed his chances of beating the Mercedes duo in tomorrow's race.

"I'd love to say we can fight with them but I'll just try to hang with them. Hopefully get a slipstream and they can drag me down into Turn 1. And yeah, stay close."