But there were no bold statements on race day as he struggled to take a point and his team mate Charles Leclerc laboured to an eighth-place finish.
Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One win for Ferrari after leading a Chinese Grand Prix sprint from start to finish in only his second race for the Italian team on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton raced one last time for Mercedes on Sunday, Formula One's most successful driver and team partnership ending in a cloud of tyre smoke
Four times World champion Max Verstappen said he had nothing to lose and would go all out to win.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday but McLaren's Lando Norris had one hand on the Formula One title after finishing second and stretching his lead over teammate Oscar Piastri to 30 points.
'Tomorrow's going to be a challenge, I've never driven this car in the rain.'
McLaren, who secured the constructors' championship in October for the second year in a row, won both titles in the same season for the first time since 1998.
The 40-year-old, who won six of his world championships at Mercedes, also unveiled a new bright yellow helmet, as he continues his first official week at Ferrari which began at the team's headquarters on Monday.
Oscar Piastri led McLaren teammate and Formula One title rival Lando Norris at the top of the timesheets in sole practice for the Qatar Grand Prix on Friday.
Norris last led the standings in April, a gap of 189 days, and had not won a race since Hungary in early August. Sunday was his sixth victory of the season, one less than Piastri, and career 10th.
Lewis Hamilton said he was 'really enjoying' driving his Ferrari after ending the second morning of Formula One's pre-season testing in Bahrain
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified from the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix after their cars failed post-race checks on Sunday.
Carlos Sainz completed a double race distance for previously struggling Williams and pushed his Ferrari successor Lewis Hamilton off the top of the testing
Norris had shown his pace in final practice when he became the third different driver to top the timesheets in the three sessions, punching out an impressive lap 0.345 faster than anyone else.
Lando Norris stretched his Formula One championship lead to nine points after winning Saturday's Sao Paulo sprint while McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri crashed in a big blow to the Australian's bid to get back on top.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri ended a long win drought with a pole-to-flag victory in the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race in Doha.
Seven-times Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton said he was excited for 2025 and ready to embrace change at Ferrari as he updated his LinkedIn profile with the hashtag 'newjob'.
Lewis Hamilton has expressed his total confidence in Ferrari after the Italian Formula One team's double disqualification in China.
Verstappen wins in Qatar to ensure three-way title showdown
Lando Norris can be crowned champion on Sunday but a win for Oscar Piastri would take the battle down to a final showdown in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
'This is the most exciting period of my life, so I'm really just enjoying it and I'm so excited to get in the car tomorrow.'
For the first time in history, the luxury car market is poised to cross the sales mark of 50,000 units in 2024, with Mercedes leading the way
Hamilton won Formula Three and GP2 (now Formula Two) championships with Vasseur's ART team in 2005 and 2006 before making a spectacular Formula One debut with McLaren in 2007.
Hamilton told reporters at pre-season testing in Bahrain that he had yet to broach the subject of 'Hammer Time' with race engineer Adami.
With eight points on offer to the winner of Saturday's 100km race, he and Norris -- 22 points behind Piastri -- both have a good chance to reduce the gap to the Australian who was three tenths slower than his teammate.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen secured a dominant win from pole position in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, leading the race from start to finish.
Lewis Hamilton shed pent-up tears of joy after ending a 945-day wait for a win with a record ninth British Grand Prix victory in front of his home fans on Sunday.
Lando Norris put Formula One champions McLaren on pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix in track-record time on Saturday, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside on the front row for his home race.
Formula One will crown its champion in Abu Dhabi on Sunday with McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both seeking to dethrone Red Bull's Max Verstappen and deny the Dutchman his fifth title in a row.
Lewis Hamilton will launch his bid to win the drivers' championship at a third F1 team when he makes his much-anticipated debut for Ferrari in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren's Lando Norris won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to surge 24 points clear in the Formula One championship on Sunday.
Piastri now leads Britain's Norris by 14 points with five rounds and two sprints remaining, while Verstappen has slashed his gap to the Australian to 40 after being 104 behind at the end of August.
Lewis Hamilton smashed the Shanghai circuit lap record on his way to a stunning first sprint race pole for Ferrari in China on Friday.
Ferrari's underwhelming pace was a surprise to their rivals and to Hamilton, whose quickest lap in the final qualifying session (Q3) was nearly nine-tenths of a second slower than Norris's.
Hamilton, the sport's only Black driver and its most successful racer, has used his platform and profile increasingly to push for equal opportunities and speak out against racial injustice.
Max Verstappen seized pole position for Sunday's US Grand Prix while Formula One leader Oscar Piastri qualified sixth after a costly sprint race collision with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Mercedes team flies F1 car to terminally ill boy's home in UK
Mercedes driver George Russell has been disqualified and lost his Belgium Grand Prix win on Sunday, after his car was found to be underweight, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton was promoted to first place.
Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton appeared in Ferrari red for the first time outside of Italy as Formula One put on an unprecedented and spectacular 10-team season launch in front of 15,000 fans on Tuesday.
George Russell will replace Valtteri Bottas and race for Mercedes next season in an all-British line-up with seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One team said on Tuesday.
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