RANDOMLY PAUSING IN RACE

Product: F1 23
Platform: PC
Please specify your platform model. PC (AMD 5800X3D, RTX 3090, HP Reverb G2 (WMR for SteamVR), CSL-DD (Formula V2.5 Wheel), CSL Clubsport v3 pedals
Summarize your bug Game randomly pauses for no reason
What is your 16 digit Report Code? EXEB-PLSD-JMJA-GVDE
Can you please provide the name of your current internet service provider? Sky Broadband
Which area is the bug/glitch in? Any single player mode
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I cannot reliable reproduce, it seem to happen completely randomly
What happens when the bug occurs? The game pause and brings up the menu
What do you expect to see? Game continue as normal

Steps I have already tried and a lot more detail.

My first thought was that the pause key was mapped to something that was being triggered, like an axis. I checked the mapping at it was correct. I remapped the pause option to a button on my wheel and this didn't change the situation. I then thought my AV might be interfering with the running process so applied an exception for anything launched from the install folder, this had no effect. I also tried setting F1_23.exe to run with administrative permissions and high CPU priority, this also didnt change the issue. Finally I thought that maybe it wasn't an issue with the pause getting activated but with the window loosing focus and the game pausing because it's no longer in focus. In order to check this out I ran OBS to record a session of the issue happening (since I dont see the desktop in VR) in the hope I could see what was pulling focus. In checking this footage I find a couple of oddities, a few seconds before (and therefore likely unrelated) a new process kicks in and displays a taskbar icon (the F1 23 icon) for just a fraction of a second. The other oddity, and more likely the actual cause, is that the mouse cursor goes to a wait icon just before the pause initiates. This led me to do some process auditing to try and find out what triggered the windows wait icon (the blue circle), this still ongoing but I have yet to find what causes it. I think I can confirmed it as related since each set of footage I take the wait icon appears just before the pause screen.

I didnt have these issues with F1 22 run an exactly the same machine. Also given that many people run without an issue I would have to conclude that it is either a local compatibility issue with something or that it is VR related since everyone I have seen using F1 23 so far (all online footage) is not using VR. My rig is dedicated to VR so I cant test the situation without it.

This is the footage (slowed down to 20% speed) that shows the occurrence : https://youtu.be/oN9HsN9uxmU

EDIT: Grammar changes for readability