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Third Time Lucky? Sebastian Vettel Sticks With the Letter L for His SF1000

Published 03/12/2020, 3:19 AM EDT

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Sebastian Vettel has kept his annual tradition alive by naming his 2020 Ferrari. The German revealed his SF1000’s nickname and it’s a slight change from the previous nomenclature. Hopefully, the SF1000 lives up to its robust name and delivers with results on track.

Sebastian Vettel names his SF1000

After Eva, Margherita, Gina, Loria and Lina, Vettel has decided to stick with another name beginning with the letter ‘L’. The German will be calling his SF1000 – ‘Lucilla’. Interestingly, Lucilla was Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’ daughter. Could a historic Italian name bring a change of fortune to the Scuderia?

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Vettel’s car naming tradition goes way back to this Toro Rosso days. The German named his first F1 car – ‘Julie’. A relatively harmless name considering the ones that followed during his time at Red Bull. Seb cheekily named his championship-winning cars – Kate’s Dirty Sister, Randy Mandy and Luscious Liz to highlight a few.

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With Vettel’s contract expiring at the end of 2020, will Lucilla be his last Ferrari car in F1?

The Maranello outfit clarified that the German was a priority for the second seat. So far, no announcements or developments have surfaced which suggest Vettel is close to signing a deal with Ferrari. Vettel has also remained quite open regarding his future in F1 and hasn’t inclined to any single option.

‘Lina’ didn’t leave Seb with too many happy memories. The SF90 was a rocket down the straights but performed poorly in medium and slow speed corners. Moreover, this was in polar opposite to Seb’s preferred car setup which is a more stable back end. The loose rear meant Vettel suffered a few spins in Bahrain and Monza, denting Ferrari’s chances of maximizing points.

is the SF1000 competitive?

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Vettel was a lot happier with ‘Lucilla’ after preseason testing. The German highlighted the SF1000’s improvements and gains achieved in the slow speed corners of the track. However, the car lacks the same straight-line performance as the SF90.

Ferrari has downplayed its chances of winning in Australia on multiple occasions. Mattia Binotto claimed the car wouldn’t be competitive and hinted at an average result for the Scuderia. Sandbagging or not, nobody knows the true form of the SF1000.

However, things will be sorted once the lights go out in Melbourne on Sunday.

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Written by:

Abhishek Bharadwaj

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Abhishek Bharadwaj is an F1 author and content strategist at EssentiallySports. Having joined ES in January 2020, he has over 700 articles to his name. While he was first introduced to the world of F1 in 2006, he started religiously following the sport in 2012 and has had an undying passion for it ever since.
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