The car's designation "SF1000" refers to Ferrari's one thousandth Grand Prix entry, which was originally due to occur at the, however, due to the cancellation and postponement of several races its 1000th race is now expected to be at the. Sebastian Vettel continued his tradition of naming his cars, this time calling it "Lucilla".
As a consequence of the technical regulations being largely unchanged for the season, the SF1000 was designed as an evolution of its predecessor the SF90, with Mattia Binotto stating: "The starting point for this car was the SF90 but we have been extreme with all the concepts as much as we could". The SF1000's centre of gravity was lowered through lowering elements of its cooling system. The initial release of the car showed that it also featured narrower sidepod inlets, tighter rear bodywork and more complex bargeboard components.
Season summary
Prior to the start of the delayed 2020 season, Binotto revealed that for the the team would use the same configuration of the SF1000 that appeared in pre-season testing. He also stated that "at the moment, we don’t have the fastest package" and that the team would introduce a major update for the third race in Hungary. At the first race, the, Leclerc and Vettel could only qualify seventh and eleventh respectively, with Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri remarking that it was "clear that we have to improve on all fronts." During the race, Leclerc took advantage of the retirements of both Red Bulls and a time penalty for Lewis Hamilton to finish an unexpected second, whereas Vettel finished tenth having spun during an overtake attempt. Vettel stated he was "happy that spun only once" and that the car was difficult to drive. The team brought forward some of their planned updates to the, however the SF1000 did not fare much better in the rain-affected qualifying session with Vettel and Leclerc qualifying only tenth and eleventh respectively. Leclerc was later demoted three places on the grid for impeding another driver during the session. Both drivers were then eliminated from the race on the first lap after colliding with each other. Vettel noted that racing on the same circuit on consecutive weekends would have provided the team with an opportunity to test and compare the SF1000's new upgrades, but that the collision made this impossible. Vettel and Leclerc qualified fifth and sixth respectively for the Hungarian Grand Prix. This was the first time in 2020 that both Ferraris had reached the third qualifying session, albeit qualifying over 1.3 seconds behind pole-sitter Hamilton and behind both Racing Point cars. Vettel finished sixth having recovered from a slow pit stop, however Leclerc finished outside the points in 11th after being passed by the McLaren of Carlos SainzJr. in the closing laps. Leclerc remarked that the car was "extremely hard to drive" and was confused by the drop in performance after a "better than expected" qualifying session.
