The first VF-1 rolled out in November 2008. I read that somewhere. Maybe the compendium, maybe Mr March's M3... I forget. However, this sounds plausible, as they weren't deployed into Active Duty status until February 9, 2009, the date of the SDF-1 launch.
It's my thinking that the VF-0 and VF-1 were designed separately, similar to the YF-22 and 23. Then, they were meant to be tested against each other. However, the VF-0 didn't perform as well, was larger, and costed more than the VF-1. (Compared to the data gathered from the VFX-1.) So, they were scrapped.
The fact that the 0's a Northrop Grumman and the 1's a Northrom makes it a tough sell, but...