The German won three of the last four races last year to claim his maiden title and he started the new season in similar fashion as he led from start to finish, cruising to victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
However, unlike last year when he was squealing like a little girl over the team radio after every victory, this year his response was cool, calm and collected as he crossed the finish line.
"Thank you boys," he said in the aftermath of Sunday's race. "Fantastic race, really controlled. Thank you very much. Very cool. Excellent car. Excellent stops. We learned a lot from today, keep it in mind.
" To further prove how much he has matured in the space of a few months, Vettel urged his team to stay grounded during the post-race press conference.
"I tried to keep saying to the team that we need to keep our feet on the floor," he said. "We got a lot of points which is very important and we enjoyed ourselves, which is even more important. It is a long year and a lot of things can happen.
"The guys [Lewis Hamilton and Vitaly Petrov] sitting next to me, plus Ferrari is always very strong, Mercedes did not have a great start but they will come back stronger than last year.
"It will be very close but it is important to finish, so big, big compliments to the people back at the factor. The car was quick but also reliable and that is the key. It's the first time I have finished the Australian GP as well so I am very, very happy.
" Although he finished more than 20 seconds ahead of Hamilton, Vettel insists it wasn't as easy as it looked.
"It was not an easy race," said Vettel. "The start was crucial. I had a good getaway but didn't know if it was enough until I saw Lewis and Mark [Webber] battling for position. On the first stint I trying to hold a gap and then at some point you reach a cliff and the tyres see some degradation.
"Lewis caught up and we came in. I could not have done more laps and after my stop it was crucial to get past Jenson, which I could do immediately so that was very, very important. After that the second part of the race I didn't know what was going on behind Lewis and with him dropping off in terms of amount of pressure I could control the situation a bit better.
"There were a lot of things to learn today and we need to have another look at the race."
Source: Planet-F1
