“Nothing has changed. I am still hungry, and I am still getting upset when
there is someone else beating me.”
Vettel added that he was not naïve enough to believe that his current charmed
life will continue forever, saying it was how he reacted to future
challenges which would define him.
He insisted, however, that he was not concerned by his lack of running on the
final day of testing last week when he was struck by a gearbox issue.
Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber acknowledged that he had his work cut out to
match a driver who won 11 races and qualified on pole a record 15 times last
season.
“Last year there was no real battle, to be honest. Seb closed the championship
out very early,” said the 35-year-old who admitted his young team-mate had
grown in stature.
“Kimi [Raikkonen] and Jenson [Button] and Lewis [Hamilton] have won the world
title as well but when you win a couple it’s very impressive. He [Vettel] is
on a high level.
“But I am bloody excited about the whole season and looking forward to some
fantastic results. I can tell you what we have done, talk street and say
awesome things we are going to do, but we have to go and do it. It has to be
done.”
The Australian added that he was not thinking about his rolling one-year
contract. “Contracts take care of themselves,” he said.
“If you are not good enough, get out. If you are getting the results, you stay
on.” Webber’s batting, at least, looks a lot more solid than Vettel’s. The
world champion will not worry about that, though.
At the moment, Vettel joked, his only worry is where to store all his
trophies, with his championship gong still sitting on his kitchen table.
“But not with the Cornflakes,” he said. “I’m German. It has to be precise.
You can’t mix Cornflakes with the world championship trophy.”