Okay, so I had a chance to try this. Was not a big deal as I just purchased the game and only have about 2 hours in it so I am not too worried about starting over.
I took the data folder from the Steam user data folder and dragged it to the desktop to save the file.
I then launched F1 and at the main screen (with the yellow graphics and drivers to the right and "press enter to continue") I pressed enter, received an error that the save file could not be loaded, then after about 30 seconds, the game crashed to the desktop.
I then decided to make sure Steam cloud saves were turned off for F1 and tried again. This time I got past the previous screen, was presented with the save load error, selected to continue without saving and started up a driver career. I was able to progress through to qualifying without issue this time around. So, it may have been a corrupted save file for sure. The big issue is now, I can't save anything.
So, I decided to uninstall the game.
Before re-installing, verified that the data was removed as well from the steam user data folder, also verified that steam cloud saves were turned off (they were on initially when I first started playing the game) and then started a new installation.
Once the installation was finished, verified that steam sync was still off and launched the game. It loaded with the old save file. and crashed immediately after trying to enter qualifying. I was frustrated to say the least as I have done everything to make sure Steam would not re-install that save file.
So, I went through with deleting the save files again, and launched the game and we were back to crashing after the main splash screen on the error that it cannot load the save file.
The game acts as if there is not any way to start a fresh new save file as I am only given the option to retry or continue without saving. The latter option does allow the game to work, but I cannot save any progress. If I try and turn on autosave to start a new save it just tells me the file cannot be loaded.