Maybe, maybe not. Thinner tires are a bit more aero, and make it easier getting the bike up to speed. While certainly nice in their way, you need a fairly long ride before the benefits becomes visible. Odds are any improvement you'll see is more realistically atttributed to that you've done some more riding since your last all-out effort.

What I've found is that paying attention to pedalling technique can really help.
I used to be a fairly crude masher, a hard push down with the forward leg - end of story. But due to knee issues I had to retrain, which was quite challenging. First, obviously, I kept mashing - just did it faster at a lower gear, which made me a slower rider. But eventually I got the hang of lifting the rear foot out of the way properly, maybe even pulling a little, and it was like finding another gear.

I've been considering going for a bigger crank, and a cassette with a bigger "small" - keeping the current ratio more or less. More teeth engaged results in less wear.