The C39's chassis was designed by Jan Monchaux, Luca Furbatto, Lucia Conconi, Alessandro Cinelli and Nicolas Hennel. Like its predecessor, the car was powered by a customer Ferrari powertrain. The C39 shared its lineage with the C38 while incorporating updates permitted under the technical regulations.
Prior to pre-season testing, Alfa Romeo revealed the C39 in a special "snake skin" livery before switching to its competition colours for testing.
The 2020 season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which compressed the calendar and introduced various protocols. At the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, Räikkönen retired after his right front tyre came off his car, while Giovinazzi finished ninth to score two points for the team.
The C39 struggled throughout much of the season at the back of the midfield. A persistent weakness was the customer Ferrari power unit, which was acknowledged to be less powerful than rival engines following Ferrari's difficulties in 2020. The car consistently found itself competing with Haas and Williams for the lower positions.
A notable result came at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Räikkönen finished twelfth, beating both works Ferrari cars — a result that illustrated the gap between the Maranello factory operation's struggling SF1000 and its customer teams in that unusual season.
The C39 gradually improved as the season progressed, with the team developing the car within the limited scope permitted by the regulations.
On 15 May, a special logo was created to mark Sauber Motorsport's 50th anniversary. For the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, the car carried an Italian flag and the text "Welcome back Imola" alongside the Alfa Romeo automaker's 110th anniversary logo on the engine cover. At the Turkish Grand Prix, the team's entry marked Sauber Motorsport's 500th Grand Prix as a constructor.
A modified version of the C39 was used for tyre testing after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when the car served as a development platform for evaluating the 2022 tyre compounds ahead of the new technical regulations era.
The C39 competed in a truncated, pandemic-affected season and faced headwinds from Ferrari's power unit performance deficit. It represents an era in which the Alfa Romeo Racing team — built on Sauber's infrastructure — consolidated its position in the constructor standings while managing extraordinary external circumstances. The car's role in testing 2022 tyres extended its useful life beyond its competitive season and contributed to the technical preparation for the sweeping regulation changes that followed.
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