Daniel Ricciardo has supported Renault's claims of significant progress with their engine during the Formula 1 off-season.

Having been the weakness of the French manufacturer during the hybrid era, it was decided an all-new power unit would be designed for 2019 after substantial performance gains became harder to come by.

And while noises coming from their Viry engine plant have been positive, Renault has generated hype before that the gap to their rivals would be closed only for the reality to be different so why is this time any different?

"Obviously being pretty deep in the Renault family, I've seen numbers and I know they are not just saying it to please everyone. It has been a good winter," Ricciardo said to Motorsport.com.

"But, race cars are race cars. You might put it on track, and it has done a lot of stuff on the dyno, and then it's 'why is it doing that?' 'Okay, we didn't expect that.'

"So you never really want to put all your eggs in that basket saying this is going to be sick.

"But look, so far what they have done over the winter, looking at the numbers they have done in previous years, it has been a good one," the Australian reiterated.

"By no means are they saying it is going to be better than a Mercedes, but from what they have done it is really positive. It is nice to hear that for sure."

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Closing up to the top three teams remains the main target at Renault for 2019, and Ricciardo's new teammate Nico Hulkenberg admits a better engine is critical to achieving that.

"It is what we needed," said the German. "Last year we didn't have much coming on that side, so it was kind of overdue.

"In the second half of last year that really put us in a difficult situation, so we really needed that. It is good that it arrives.

"Then again on the other side, Ferrari and Mercedes may have found another whole lot of power again which means we will have to find more again," he warned.

"It is hard to say without speculating."