[2][3] It is the first Sauber-engineered car to be badged Alfa Romeo following a team renaming deal struck with Sauber Motorsport AG in February 2019.

The chassis was designed by Simone Resta, Luca Furbatto, Ian Wright, Jan Monchaux and Nicolas Hennel with the car being powered with a customer Ferrari powertrain.

In Azerbaijan, Räikkönen's car failed a front wing deflection test, excluding him from qualifying and forcing him to start the race from the pit lane.

A particularly poor showing came in Monaco, after Giovinazzi was penalised for causing a collision and would go on to finish the race in 19th place, whilst Räikkönen could only salvage 17th.

The C38's first retirement of the season came at the following race in Britain, where Giovinazzi spun into a gravel trap after suffering a mechanical failure whilst running in 9th place.

In Belgium, Räikkönen was involved in a first-lap collision and suffered a slow pit-stop when his front wing was replaced, eventually finishing 16th.

In Italy, Räikkönen crashed heavily in qualifying, forcing him to start the race from the pit lane after damaged power unit components were replaced.

The car returned to poor form at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with both drivers failing to reach Q2 and to score points.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, the car ran with an image of the 158 with which Giuseppe Farina won the first World Championship race.