Schumacher says Williams are still some way behind Ferrari

Ferrari dominated the first race of the season in Australia last weekend.

Berger told BBC Five Live: "I don't think Williams will be able to close the gap to Ferrari in the first half of the season because it was really big."

He added that Williams were happy with their car before the season, so simply needed time to make it quicker.

Berger, who won 10 races in his career as a Grand Prix driver, said: "The team was really happy before the season with the balance and performance of the car, so I don't see they have any major problems with it.

"They just need to do development work. And development work usually takes a bit of time.

"So I don't see a big change in the next races apart from maybe the influence of heat and the tyres.

Melbourne showed there is still quite a lot of work ahead of us if we want to fight for the world championship this year Ralf Schumacher

"And then we will see - maybe from mid-season on we are going to see a strong competition."

Williams and Ferrari's other rivals hope that their Michelin tyres will be better suited to the heat of the next race in Malaysia than Ferrari's Bridgestones, as has been the case in the last two years.

But BMW Williams driver Ralf Schumacher is cautious about his team's chances of turning the tables on Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Schumacher said: "Melbourne showed there is still quite a lot of work ahead of us if we want to fight for the world championship this year.

"Even if we can't close the gap to Ferrari straight away, we must do better in Malaysia."

The German, who finished fourth in Melbourne, is hopeful Williams' Michelin tyres will be better suited to the heat of Malaysia than Ferrari's Bridgestones.

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Michelin were not competitive against Bridgestone in the unexpectedly cool weather in Melbourne.

But even so, Schumacher said he is not confident that will be enough to close the gap - Ferrari were a second a lap faster than anyone else in Australia.

Schumacher said: "The car and the Michelin tyres are better suited to Sepang [circuit] and Malaysia's hot weather, but we can't rely on this alone."

Team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya added: "The hot temperatures typical of Malaysia and Bahrain (the third race) should be favourable to our car, so we are hoping the next two races will be more positive for us.

"The BMW engine has been very reliable over winter testing, so we expect it to be able to tolerate the extreme heat.

"Similarly, the Michelin tyres should perform much better in the warmer conditions."