Interactive: Compare the new Ferrari SF1000 with last year’s car

2020 F1 season

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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said the team’s new SF1000, launched yesterday, featured some “extreme concepts” as the team bids to end Mercedes’ six-year domination of Formula 1.

However the core layout is fundamentally similar to last year’s SF90, which it is based on.

“The SF1000 [has] the SF90 of last year as a starting point,” said Binotto. “The regulations have [remained] stable this year.”

The main areas in which the car diverges from its predecessor are where Ferrari has tried to improve the peak downforce the car can generate, which was a weakness for the team last year.

“The entire project has been trying to get as much aero performance as possible, certainly in terms of downforce level,” said Binotto. “The entire chassis, monocoque, gearbox, power unit packaging has been designed so as to have a very narrow car and a very narrow shape, body shape.”

“The suspension have been reviewed to give us some more flexibility at the race track in terms of set-up,” Binotto added.

Several of these changes can be seen in the comparison images below, notably the slimmer rear end of the car and reshaped sidepods. But inevitably many of the key differences lie beneath the skin.

“The internal combustion engine architecture has been changed as well,” said Binotto. “The combustion chamber, to cope as well with the new regulation where the oil consumption has been reduced by half.

“So a lot of work has been done on that car, which in a way is a very extreme car compared to the car of last year.”

Use the sliders below to transition between images of the 2020 and 2019 Ferrari F1 cars.

Front

Side

Three-quarter

Note these images may have been altered for ease of comparison and should not be used as a reference for measurements.

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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14 comments on “Interactive: Compare the new Ferrari SF1000 with last year’s car”

  1. I think there’s too much difference in the car sizes in the photos to make an accurate comparison. For example, in the first comparison the front tyre on the SF1000 is much larger than the SF90, which means it’s probably more zoomed in.

    1. @todfod
      Exactly what I was thinking. Makes it tough for an exact comparison.

      But you can still see the major differences in the two designs:
      – front wing: the upper two elements become much steeper going to the center (steeper than 2019)
      – heavily revised around the bargeboard area
      – mirror-wings
      – airbox-horns
      – more tightly packaged at the rear
      – different shark-fin design

      1. @srga91 Sure about the first point? Both seem to have a height similar to the end plate, and if you look at the second comparison, the end plate is roughly the same height as in 2019. If the second comparison is the more correct one, that means there is no big difference in steepness.

        1. @losd
          I’ve looked at it over and over again and to me it seems like there is a difference (and not an insignificant one) in steepness. The lower two elements look very similar to last year, but the very top element looks considerably steeper than last year.

          You are right about the second comparison, which looks to be most accurate one, regarding the dimensions. But then again, you don’t see the front wing at all, which makes it hard to guess how much of a difference there really is.

          1. @srga91, the one thing you can see in the second picture is the endplate, and if you compare the wing to the end plate (i.e. if you make a horizontal line at the top of the endplate, the 2020 wing elements are actually lower than in the 2019 shot.

            However, I think that may be due to the difference in the angle of the shot (and the tallest elements being furthest back). I tried scaling the images so that the end plates are the same height, and then I ended up with the wheel in the 2020 shot being lower than the 2019 shot.

    2. The 2020 car frontal picture is taken from a lower elevation.

  2. Love these interactive comparisons – thanks Keith!

  3. I realize it is almost impossible to get perfect, but there’s quite a difference between the height of the car in the first comparison, and the others: It looks a LOT taller than the 2019 Ferrari, while the second makes it look about the same height, and the third makes it look lower.

    The third is definitely a different perspective between years, I guess the side-view of second is the one giving the most correct comparison.

  4. There should be a standard positioning (x,y,z) exactly measured including lens, focal length, aperture etc so these comparisons work properly. Who can give Liberty a nudge to add that to the rulebook?

    1. You want another rule in F1 !!!???

  5. Launch spec to launch spec comparisons are a little pointless imho. The Abu Dhabi spec SF90 was very very very very very similar to the new challenger.

  6. Second shot shows a considerably longer wheelbase – interesting!

  7. As different as chalk and cheese… the description and reality. Looks like the usual from Ferrari, not enough.

  8. There is definitely more rake…no question about it. They’ve changed the angle on a lot of surfaces to accomodate the increase rake so that the airflow hits those surfaces at the same angles as before, but overall the floor angle is definitely higher. They’ll be running much more downforce with the floor/defuser which is why you see a slimmed down rear wing.

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