Vettel will be sharing Ferrari testing duties with the 20-year-old at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit next week after the second grand prix of the season.
Ferrari's new team principal Mattia Binotto said earlier in the year that Vettel, as the team's "champion", would be given priority over Leclerc in certain racing situations, though he later clarified the drivers would be "free to fight".
Following's Verstappen's 2021 title win, here's a list of F1 champions over the years...
Ferrari, expecting rain, sent Vettel and team mate Kimi Raikkonen out on the intermediate tyres at the start of the final shootout phase of qualifying.
Ferrari's times were eye-catching, and quicker than anything from last year's weather-affected first four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Ferrari made a strong start to the first day of Formula One testing, on Monday, with four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel top of the timesheets at lunchtime with 72 laps completed.
The Briton's fourth victory in five races suggests that once again the 33-year-old is hitting a purple phase just as the season enters its critical stages.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has said the 'door at Maranello will always be open' for Michael Schumacher's son Mick should the German prospect follow in his father's footsteps and progress to Formula One.
Finland's 2007 Formula One World champion Kimi Raikkonen will leave Ferrari at the end of the season in a swap with Sauber's Charles Leclerc, both teams announced on Tuesday.
Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari on pole position for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix with team mate Kimi Raikkonen alongside on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday to stretch his championship lead to 30 points over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who fought back to fourth after a first lap spin.
Michael Schumacher's son Mick has followed in his father's footsteps by signing a contract with Ferrari to join the Formula One team's young driver academy. The 19-year-old German, whose father won five of his record seven championships with the Italian team, will be competing in Formula Two this year after winning the European F3 title in 2018.
Vettel, 17 points behind Hamilton after a commanding win in Belgium last Sunday, has previously triumphed at Monza with Toro Rosso and Red Bull and will fancy his chances of the hat-trick at the super-fast track outside Milan.
Formula One motor racing: Team prospects for 2018
Alfa Romeo announced Guanyu Zhou as China's first Formula One racing driver on Tuesday with his arrival in 2022 hailed by both the team and the sport as a historic breakthrough in a key growth market.
In a thrilling race with two safety car periods, reigning champion Hamilton went from pole position to the rear of the field before finishing second for Mercedes in a superb fightback. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third.
Red Bull closed the gap to champions Mercedes in the constructors' standings to one point.
Sebastian Vettel recognised that he and Ferrari have made mistakes this season but refused to single out the moment where his hopes of winning a fifth Formula One title ended.
Michael Schumacher's wife, Corinna, said the Formula One great is "different, but he's here" as the 52-year-old continues his rehabilitation from a brain injury suffered in a skiing accident in December 2013.
In the interests of better visibility, teams were told last month they could fix mirrors to the halo head protection device that encircles the cockpit and that became mandatory this season.
Max Verstappen won his home Dutch Grand Prix for Red Bull on Sunday and took the Formula One championship lead in front of a roaring, dancing army of fans hailing their hero with orange flags and flares.
Sixty-five thousand fans were on their feet as they watched their home hero Max Verstappen fend off title rival Lewis Hamilton to snatch pole position for the returning Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday.
Red Bull's Mexican Sergio Perez was a distant third, struggling with dehydration after a water bottle failure in the Texas heat.
Verstappen leads seven times world champion Hamilton by six points with six races remaining and the pole at Austin's Circuit of the Americas was the ninth of the season for the Dutch 24-year-old -- and eighth in the last 11 races.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced he will hang up his helmet and gloves and call time on an illustrious Formula One career at the end of the season.
Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 at the top of the timesheets for the first free practice session at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday, while McLaren's hopes of a clean start were tempered by reliability issues.
Sebastian Vettel trimmed Lewis Hamilton's Formula One lead to 17 points with eight races remaining.
Verstappen took a grid penalty at the previous race in Russia and finished second after starting at the back of the field, his progress helped after late rain caused problems for others.
The Finn's lap of one minute 17.221 seconds around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya was the second fastest of the eight days of winter testing and slower only than team mate Sebastian Vettel's best on Thursday.
With cars like the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic selling in very small numbers and potentially even being phased out, the Octavia has very little competition, says Pavan Lall.
The sport's oldest and most successful team are hoping the car, with more red and less white in the livery following the departure of sponsor Santander, will take them to a first championship in a decade.
Francesco Molinari was only half joking when he said his stunning British Open victory might make the headlines back home - as long Ferrari had not won the Grand Prix in Hockenheim.
'Hathras, Muradabad, Trichur, Salem, Madurai, Aligarh and Kanpur are cities where we are expecting and in some cases have seen new buyers come from.'
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton hunted down Max Verstappen to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash his Red Bull rival's Formula One lead to 14 points in one of the greatest drives of his career.
Sebastian Vettel handed Ferrari their first Canadian Grand Prix pole position since Michael Schumacher in 2001 on Saturday while Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for Mercedes. Vettel, 14 points behind the Briton, will start from the front for the fourth time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after setting a track record of one minute 10.764 seconds on a sunny afternoon.
Ferrari could lead other Formula One teams into an alternative championship if the sport becomes too much like the US-based NASCAR series.
Formula One's governing body will investigate Sunday's Italian Grand Prix crash between title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton because it was 'unusual', according to race director Michael Masi.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for a record-extending eighth time on Sunday despite a 10-second penalty for a controversial first lap collision that sent Red Bull rival Max Verstappen crashing out of the race.
The German, winner of the season's first two races, had been second before coming in for a fresh set of tyres while Hamilton won with one stop from pole position.
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