But come the race the situation was the exact opposite. Both Juan Pablo and Ralf struggled to match the race pace of the Ferrari's. The end of race would see the BMW WilliamsF1 team come away with only two points, a seventh for Ralf. To say that this result was a disappointment would be an understatement.

But what went wrong? Juan Pablo would have his gearbox problem that would see him drop from third to thirteenth at the finish and Ralf would get involved in a collision with BAR's Takuma Sato, which would ruin any hopes that Ralf had of securing a good result, but it came down to the fact that the team simply did not have the pace during the race to mount any serious challenge for a race win. Yes both Ralf and Juan Pablo did set very quick lap times during the race but overall their pace during the race was totally inadequate.

After the Australian Grand Prix and the dominate performance by the Ferrari team the WilliamsF1 team were to admit that there was still a lot of work to do to bring the new FW26, despite clocking up thousands of kilometers of test miles, before it would be competitive.

There was also the often heard comment that the weather conditions had favoured the Ferrari and its Bridgestone tyres. But there was a glimmer of hope because the next two races were at tracks that would suit the teams Michelin tyres.

Come Malaysia and again the team struggled to match the Ferrari pace, even with the hotter track conditions. But at least Juan Pablo would finish second and finish far closer to the eventual winner Michael Schumacher. Was this a case of the result flattering the team's true pace come later races.

Well one thought that things can only improve in Bahrain. But again the team failed to deliver with one car having reliability problems and the other getting involved in a totally unnecessary accident.

Is 2004 going to be a repeat of 2003 where the WilliamsF1 team struggled in the opening races? Even after testing extensively prior to the start of the season the team still does not have a car that is showing its potential. We know that it has the speed to set very competitive times but for some reason its pace in races has been far from impressive.

What is the major factor in this lack of pace. From the position of an outside it does appear that the teams Michelin tyres are not performing at all well. In the races so far this season Michelin has been made to look very inferior by their Bridgestone rivals. It was believed that Bridgestone would suffer on those tracks where there were warmer conditions. How wrong was this view point. Last season the Michelin tyres were far superior in hot conditions but Bridgestone has certainly reversed this in 2004.

To watch two cars both on very similar race strategies, one with Bridgestone tyres the other with Michelin, and the Bridgestone shod car opens up a lead of 1.5 seconds after a single lap of the race. Something is seriously wrong here. Come the European races where the conditions are certainly going to favour the Bridgestone tyres how are Michelin going to respond. Pictures of Pierre Dupasquier during the running of the Bahrain Grand Prix certainly seemed to show a man worried about the performance of his companies products.

On the driver front both Ralf and Juan Pablo have been far from inspiring with their performances. But if one had to rate the performances of the pair one would certainly have to put Juan Pablo out in front of his German team-mate.

Ralf would comment on his performance in the race by saying: "All in all, I'm not too disappointed because I have seen from the data that I was running close to Ferrari's pace, whenever I had free track ahead."

So what if he was matching the pace of the Ferrari, by that time any hope of a good result had evaporated. Ralf certainly has made a mess of his opening races, in Malaysia getting involved with Webber and in Bahrain getting involved with Sato. It does little to inspire confidence in his ability to produce results. Maybe this explains why the WilliamsF1 team is reluctant to quickly resign Ralf.

Everyone at WilliamsF1 talks about improving the package, but one has to ask why the package was not up to the speed of Ferrari prior to the start of the season. The problem we have now is that we have a car that is yet to meet the performances of the F2004 let alone pass them.

As one regular WilliamsF1 supporter said in a comment: "Pathetic showing today really, not one single part of the package matched its potential never mind exceeded it. Its too damn easy for the reds, too easy."