Vettel ready to drive Ferrari's 'tighter, more exciting' 2020 F1 car

Sebastian Vettel is optimistic about Ferrari's 2020 Formula 1 car, the SF1000, saying the new design boasts a number of "clever solutions" to last year's problems.

Last season Vettel recorded one of his worst seasons since joining Ferrari as he managed just one grand prix win on his way to fifth in the championship.

It was a season in which Ferrari failed to take the fight to Mercedes, the SF90's design philosophy falling short.

This year, with the regulations remaining stagnant, the Italian stable has reworked the SF90 to create a sleeker, tighter SF1000.

Vettel said at Tuesday evening's launch: "Everything sits a lot tighter. We have found clever solutions. I can't wait to drive it, as that's more exciting than looking at it. One more week to wait, it's fantastic."

The changes

But while a quick look at the new Ferrari doesn't show up many differences to last year's car, team principal Mattia Binotto was quick to highlight the changes.

Calling this year's SF1000 "very extreme", the Italian says Ferrari have made changes to the packaging, the gearbox and the suspension while concentrating on keeping the weight down.

READ: Ferrari pins hope on new SF1000 car for upcoming F1 season

Binotto said: "Certainly the regulations remain stable so it is difficult to transform completely the car. The starting point is last year's car, the SF90, but certainly we're extreme on all the concepts as much as we could. We try to go for maximum aero performance, and try to maximise downforce level, so the entire car, the monocoque, the power unit layout, the gearbox, has been really packaged to have a narrower slim body shape. I think that is quite visible.

"We work on all the components. The suspension has been designed to have greater flexibility when being on the race track, so we can adapt the set up to whatever suits the drivers and the circuit. We put a lot of effort to keep the weight down. We worked a lot on the power unit, not only for packaging, but we work on each single component to cope as well with the changing technical regulations.

"It may look very similar to last year but believe me it is completely different to last year. A lot of concepts are very extreme on the car."