It's a bit of a mixed bag and there are still quite a lot of issues waiting to get fixed. I have had fun races though, currently doing co-op career with a friend, which been enjoyable, even though I personally have made too many big mistakes during the races. The AI is definitely much faster in this game compared to 2021, so ignore you ego and drop it a bit. I have needed to learn to improve on corner exists to stay a bit more competitive, but it's still challenging to do overtakes on longer straights, because the AI is still quite fast out of corners (also using higher gears than normal in corners is recommended). You have to plan and do overtakes often on other places than the drs straights.
AI is definitely more lively compared to 2021, an I prefer it like that quite a bit. Unfortunately it's also prone to making a bit too many major mistakes, and taking unrealistic dives that might ruin your race as well. Hopefully will be toned down in upcoming patch (overly aggressive AI is marked currently to be waiting for a patch). AI also definitely doesn't play with all the sames rules as the players, as the tire temps especially seems to be pretty scripted and unfair compared to player.
In modes where you have car upgrades, the balance of the car can go really bad for some reason. In 2021, it was the ultimate brake upgrade that seemed to ruin the car, with brakes locking up from light inputs and super hard to manage. I have heard it's the same with this game, so stay away from that upgrade.
In my team mode, I guess you get some different set of starting upgrades if you select midfield car/team in the beginning, depending on how you answer to the set of questions (not 100% sure about this, but at least it seemed like that). In my first try, I had a car with quite a lot of durability upgrades and less others for some reason, and it was horrible, practice program delta's were miles away from what I could achieve and I couldn't keep up in the races at all. After few races, I started my team career again, answered questions differently and got a bit more manageable car (not good, but better) and were able to achieve those practice program deltas and be more competitive. After bunch of races, I got enough upgrades to aero and chassis and suddenly the car became super easy to drive, at least compared to what it was (could be a bit faster though, but at least the handling felt great). Oh, at one point, there was a race or two where the upgrades made the balance worse, and I had super diffcult type to do the braking, either the car didn't slow down enough or tires locked, it was weird. Fortunately further upgrades fixed it again. The point of this story is that don't make final conclusions too quickly, especially with a car in mode where you have upgrades and the handling can feel different from race to race quite a bit with new upgrades coming in. GP mode is better presentation on how it should feel (especially with top end cars like RB and Ferrari).
