Williams duo eye Oz podium finishes

The Grove-based team has racked up over 20,000km of testing so far this year, and despite some concern over the competitiveness of the Williams chassis, the drivers have set their sights high for Melbourne.

"After the intense test programme over the last two months we are supposed to be better prepared than ever before, especially as we have done some race distances too," said Schumacher. "The most important thing for the first race of the season is always to finish it. I think if we see the chequered flag we should have a chance to score a podium position as well."

Montoya added: "As Melbourne is the first race of the season, there will be a big question mark over everyone's speed, even though I think we will be all right. We have done miles of testing recently, but despite this, I always want to do more before the first race."

Despite some problems in testing - the car was outpaced by McLaren at Valencia last week - team boss Frank Williams is upbeat about his squad's chances.

"It's a good racing car, but we don't know how good yet," he said. "You have to remember that the '94 car was average in its first tests, because it was difficult to set up. Once it was set up right, it went very quickly."