The Brawn driver leads the championship by 12 points but he said there was no guarantee he would keep his advantage at the next race in Spain on 10 May.
Finland's Raikkonen was the last driver to win the championship for Ferrari with his triumph five years ago.
For example, championship NASCAR driver Carl Edwards is going to be visiting military bases in connection with his weekly races.
The Englishman joined Canada's 1997 winner Jacques Villeneuve as the only other driver to claim the championship in just their second season.
"I am excited to become part of a highly talented and capable technical organization, " said Lowe, who follows 2008 world championship-winning driver Lewis Hamilton in swapping McLaren for Mercedes, in a statement.
The result extended Schumacher's championship lead over McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen to eight points with six races to go.
The BMW Team driver is still fifth in the Championship after coming seventh in race one and third in race two.
Raikkonen, who clinched the drivers' championship as a Ferrari driver in 2007, will make his return to F1 next year after initially leaving the sport in 2009.
He sits ninth in the 2009 drivers' championship, 42 points behind Brawn GP's English driver Jenson Button, while McLaren trail table-toppers Brawn by 73 points in the constructors' championship.
Ecclestone tipped Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel to retain his drivers' championship and become only the third driver after Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio and fellow German Michael Schumacher to win three titles in a row.
Keselowski is the first driver besides Stewart or Jimmie Johnson to win the championship since 2004.
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When the action resumed, Isle of Man driver Mark Higgins consolidated his position in the world championship points.
The Red Bull driver, 23, did not lead the 2010 championship at any point in the season but won Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to secure his maiden crown.
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Even so, Vettel should have less to do than the last driver who went to Brazil looking to claim the world championship: Lewis Hamilton.
The Red Bull driver, who goes into the race second in the championship, must finish ahead of leader Fernando Alonso to have a chance of winning the title.
The Red Bull driver is currently lying second in this year's championship table and will look to heap further pressure on Alonso with a good race on Sunday.
He won the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix and began celebrating, but was denied the championship by one point as McLaren's British driver Lewis Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the final corner to finish fifth and steal the glory.
McIlroy is making his season debut this week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and will use a Nike ball, putter and driver.
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The former Ferrari driver has joined Lotus -- who competed in last year's championship as Renault -- and spoke of his excitement at the launch of the team's new E20 car.
Rossi will be driving a Peugeot 206 with Carlo Cassina as his co-driver in the rally, the last event in this year's world championship.
The former Ferrari driver has endured a miserable start to the 2012 season, collecting just two world championship points and retiring from five of the first seven races.
The bulk of the game is centered on the Championship season and all it takes to get started is choosing a team and a driver.
The Italian team's lead driver Fernando Alonso is targeting a strong result to maintain his "silver medal position" in the championship.
BBC: A photograph of the main grandstand at the Indian GP circuit
Hamilton won the 2008 World Championship with McLaren and has been part of the organization since McLaren signed him to its driver development program in 1998 at the age of 13.
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The Colombian driver is switching to McLaren in 2005 and Brawn said it could create divisions at Williams if the 2004 championship was a close race.
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Since then, though, Makinen, arguably the finest rally driver in the world, has been there or thereabouts, but not really a feature in the thick of the championship battle.
U.S. driver Alexander Rossi will remain the second team reserve, but will take over Ma's seat in the GP2 championship -- which is the official feeder F1 series for the next generation of drivers.
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