By Jonathan Legard BBC motor racing correspondent

Will Schumi be saluting a win in Malaysia?

Sepang is the first proper race track of the season and the heat is on Williams, Renault and McLaren to show that the Malaysian Grand Prix offers a truer picture of their 2004 potential.

Ferrari played it cool after blowing away the opposition in Australia's curtain-raiser.

But wannabe world-beaters like Juan Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen couldn't ignore the warning signs.

They know they need to pack a mighty response this weekend otherwise they could be facing a hopeless grind for the next seven months.

If it's dry in Malaysia and Ferrari go like they did in Melbourne, then it'll be like that for quite a while as we make up ground Juan Pablo Montoya

"We've got to go out there and win," Montoya said.

"If it's dry in Malaysia and Ferrari go like they did in Melbourne, then it'll be like that for quite a while as we make up ground."

"But I'll be surprised if they do."

Wishful thinking or cautious optimism?

It depends on the big, black rubber rings at the four corners of Montoya's BMW Williams.

Ferrari dominate first race

If Michelin have done their homework and the tropical temperatures - on track as high as 50C degrees - take effect as usual, then Montoya and Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher have every chance of repeating their 2002 formation finish.

And that would silence the prophets of doom, already forecasting another Ferrari title march.

Alonso and Raikkonen enjoyed the tyre benefits last year with pole position and victory for Renault and McLaren respectively.

Much rests on the performance of Montoya

For the moment at least, McLaren need more than high performance race rubber to have a hope of threatening the front of the grid.

Renault, like Williams, can afford to be much more confident of leading the charge against Ferrari.

Since Michelin applied itself to reclaiming the championship with real intent, Schumacher has struggled to reach the podium in Malaysia.

Michelin's hot streak in the second half of 2003 suggested that Ferrari and their Bridgestone partners were close to being toppled from their pedestal.

If the sun shone, it seemed like the champions got burned.

The Melbourne result, under grey skies, played to that pattern.

For the last year two years, there've been some difficulties in Malaysia but this car is really competitive Rubens Barrichello Ferrari driver

But the Michelin Man's smile will be wiped out for months if Ferrari leave the rest gasping for air in a Kuala Lumpur hothouse.

The prospects for Imola, Nurburgring, Silverstone and Spa, for example, don't bear thinking about.

Ominously, Williams and McLaren could only stand and stare as Rubens Barrichello flew in testing at Valencia last week.

Typically, Ferrari was the only team to dispatch a race driver round the world to finish its preparations - at the request of Bridgestone.

The result is that some of their engineers privately believe they could be cheering another 1-2 finish this weekend.

"For the last year two years, there've been some difficulties in Malaysia but this car is really competitive," said Barrichello.

Ferrari will take nothing for granted.

But if they do impose themselves decisively under more recognised Michelin-friendly conditions, Montoya's wish to sign off at Williams as world champion looks as likely as Michael Schumacher's retirement.