He definitely seemed to find some confidence again during the last few races.

It seemed like mid-season he was super depressed and you could hear it on every team radio message.

I feel like when he had to retire due to the crazy heat the way the team treated him went a long way towards making him more confident in his seat.

That said I don't think he's a particularly good F1 driver when there is some amazing talent working as reserve on some of these teams.