Sebastian Vettel has not allowed himself to forget the pain of defeat even during his current run of untouchable form.
The Red Bull driver has been a class apart in the early weeks of the 2011 campaign, winning the opening two races from pole and claiming top spot for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix by seven tenths of a second from McLaren's Jenson Button.
Including last season, the reigning world champion will be looking to make it five wins in a row tomorrow to ensure he heads to the start of the European season in Turkey in three weeks' time with an unblemished record.
The 23-year-old's rise in F1 has been quicker than most - he did not, for instance, serve lengthy apprenticeships with midfield teams in the manner of a Button or Mark Webber - but he remains mindful of the times when poles and wins did not come quite so readily.
"Since halfway through 2009 we have had a very, very competitive car and we enjoy running at the front but we still haven't forgotten how it feels to run at the back, not only finishing fourth, fifth, sixth, even further down," said Vettel after claiming the 18th pole position of his career.
"That's Formula One, it's competitive. Sometimes you might be in a comfortable situation, other times it will be very tight and other times you will be behind."
Flanking Vettel in today's post-qualifying press conference was the McLaren duo of Button and Lewis Hamilton, a reminder if he needed one of the way in which F1 fortunes can fluctuate.
Former world champions both, Button and Hamilton these days find themselves in the position where poles and wins are harder to come by than they were in their title-winning seasons.
But the McLaren are breathing hard down the neck of Red Bull in an effort to ensure it is they who will soon be dominating, and Vettel concedes there can be no complacency at Red Bull.
"Teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, obviously they are not as happy as they want to be and they are pushing very hard, so to stay where we are, we have to push harder than them to stay there," he said.
"I'm happy as I can be at this stage but I can't predict the future. I'm confident that we will have good races in the future as well, but first of all, there's a race tomorrow."
Vettel's current winning run is in stark contrast to the current woes gripping team-mate Webber.
The Australian already lies 28 points behind Vettel and will start 18th tomorrow after a weekend of struggle with his KERS device and a poor call on tyres in qualifying.
"It's true Mark did not have a good day," said Vettel.
"This morning he had some problems and in qualifying it was quite a shame as I think the car is quick enough.
"He has had a tough weekend so far so it is a shame that we are not both up there."
Button's second place represents his best qualifying performance of the season and the 31-year-old admitted it was a big result after a suffering difficulties setting up his car yesterday.
"I think we have improved the car a lot and we should be happy with what we have achieved today," he said.
"I think the team did a great job of really turning the car around."
Unlike Button, Hamilton elected to go for just one run in the pole position shootout, so preserving an extra set of the preferred option tyres for tomorrow's race.
He said. "I had to do the job on that one single lap. Your tyres have to be up to temperature, but I managed to do the lap and (I am) quite happy with it."
Turning to how he might combat the Red Bull of Vettel, Hamilton added: "They only have the advantage in qualifying generally.
"They are a little bit quicker in the race but we're quite competitive there, so tomorrow we can give them a run for their money."
Elsewhere, it was a good day for Nico Rosberg as he took fourth on the grid while Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher languished down in 14th.
The Ferraris were fifth and sixth, Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa, while Paul di Resta made it three Britons in the top 10 on his 25th birthday, the Scot taking his Force India to eighth ahead of only his third career grand prix.
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