Williams was the second quickest team behind Mercedes at the end of last season, but it has been clear over the early races of 2015 that it has fallen behind Ferrari as best of the rest.

The team has been hampered by overheating its tyres in race trim, but it made progress in that area between China and Bahrain.

That allowed Valtteri Bottas to run the optimal soft, soft, medium strategy and be in a position to take advantage of a mistake from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to snatch fourth place at Sakhir.

Daniel Ricciardo was sixth behind Vettel, in the recovering Red Bull’s strongest showing of the year.

“We need to develop the whole package faster and at a higher rate if we are going to catch the people in front,” said Smedley. “That is our aim.

“You [also] have to bear in mind that you have a huge and very technically-able organisation in Red Bull behind us, who will eventually get their act together.

“They will be a lot stronger than they are now, so we need to be looking forward and keeping an eye on what is going behind us.

“We are dealing with massive teams with Ferrari in front, Red Bull behind.

“This is the field we’re playing in at the moment.”

When asked if Williams needs to focus on maximising it’s current package or add upgrades, Smedley said: “We need to do both.

“We are optimising fairly well the package that we have got now.

“There is more to come, but not huge chunks of what we have got.”

• Sebastian Vettel
• Red Bull
• Daniel Ricciardo