After looking like a dark-horse contender for several race wins last year, Williams have fallen behind Ferrari after the Italian side’s testing gains shocked the paddock. Now, Williams technical director Rob Smedley says his garage needs to up their game or risk being left adrift in midfield.

“We need to develop the whole package faster and at a higher rate if we are going to catch the people in front,” Smedley said. “With getting updates for our car, hopefully we can be a bit closer again to Ferrari and Mercedes.”

The gains between China and Bahrain were noticeable though, allowing Williams’ promising young Finn Valtteri Bottas to hold off a charging Sebastian Vettel in the race’s dying laps. Most of that improvement came from improved tyre management, an area where Williams struggled both this season and last and where Ferrari has begun to excel.

“[In Bahrain] we could work better with the option tyre,” Bottas said. “Even in the beginning it was not too bad, the Ferrari and Mercedes were not getting miles away. So it’s progress, but we need more.”

With Barcelona and Monaco both notably unforgiving on tyre wear, the Grove outfit will need to find some way to build off of Sakhir’s slight improvement over the three week break. Otherwise, with updates to both Mercedes and Ferrari power units expected, the frontrunners, somewhat kinder to their tyres than Williams, could stretch their leads over Massa and Bottas even further.