'We have to remember these days' - Vettel

It looked as if Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas could hardly have gone any smoother for Sebastian Vettel, as he cruised to victory seemingly without a care in the world in the 2013 United States Grand Prix.

"An incredible team performance today," hailed Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "For Sebastian to achieve a new record of the most consecutive wins in a season is a fantastic performance."

But even as he achieved new heights of dominance, an emotional Sebastian Vettel was quick to counsel his team not to take any of their current phenomenal run of success for granted.

"We have to remember these days," Vettel said over his team radio after the chequered flag as he returned to pit road, sounding even more choked up than he had when he clinched his fourth championship in India last month. "We have to enjoy them while they last."

Afterwards, he explained to Sky Sports F1 what had been in his mind at the time: "People tend to forget how much work there is behind all these things and how special it is.

"I remember back in 2008 how happy I was to be once in my life on pole," he said. "I think should never lose the passion and the enjoy and remember the days when you were dreaming of these things to happen.

"You should never lose the passion and the joy and always remember the days when you were just dreaming of these things happening," he added. "For all of us it is important just to enjoy the moment and there is more time later on in our lives to realise what it meant."

That passion is such a crucial element for Vettel that he insisted he would quit the sport if he ever lost the spark of enthusiasm and love for what he does. "The moment you are not hungry anymore or you ask yourself what you are doing, it's time to move on and do something else," he insisted.

"Other people can expect what they want, but as long as we don't expect to win all the time and get lazy it's okay," he said. "It's not the case, I jump in the car and just want to be fastest. It happens more lately but you shouldn't just allow yourself to get used to it."

That's especially the case when the reasons behind Vettel's astonishing dominant run of form since the summer break aren't entirely clear, even to the world champion himself.

"I'm not sure what we have done since the summer break in order that we have been winning races, but whatever it was it has worked," he said. "It's down to team effort today. Everyone is willing to push; this morning the guys were working hard as we had some concerns about reliability on the car, so they were flat out trying to fix the problem and the car ran okay all race, so a big thanks to them."

Vettel hasn't been beaten in a race since Lewis Hamilton won at Hungary at the end of July, but despite the seemingly metronomic beat of his success in the latter half of 2013, the winning streak seems to have only reminded Vettel of how these things can slip away again just as quickly as they appeared.

"When you are a sports man, not every day is supposed to be a good day and you have ups and downs," he said. "Certainly you feel the points when you are low, they hurt more than when you are on a high. Of course you enjoy those times, but I kept saying that there's no guarantee for the next race or the one after that or after that.

"On Sunday things happen fast and you don't always realise what has been achieved until later," he added. "It's the day after, normally on the Monday, when you feel what you have achieved. It's a great feeling, you have a grin on your face and it's nice.

"[But] you never know what is coming next - so you have to enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow."