Pre-season testing
This could work very well in both Driver career and My Team career. Before the season (as in real life) there are three days of testing in Bahrain. In these days (of which half are driven by the player and half by their teammate) you have to run programs (longer programs compared to free practice), with the length of the sessions and of the programs determined by the option selected by the player (for example: if 100% length -> 4h AM session + 4h PM session like in real life; if 50% length -> 2h AM +2h PM; if 35% or lower length -> 1h AM + 1h PM).
In these sessions, always also based on the reliability of the car, it should be more likely to have technical issues since you are testing a new car (sensor issues, overheating, hydraulic system malfunctions, …).
The programs need to be completed with three different “packages” options that have different characteristics (for example: package 1 has more developed aerodynamics on drag reduction, but a heavier car; package 2 is more focused on engine power, but there is less downforce; package 3 has a very light car, but the engine might not be very powerful; then you could have more packages and only make 3 available in testing, rotating the options through seasons) and at the end of the tests the player has to choose which package they want to use for the season (of course then there’s still going to be R&D). For My Team career the packages could also look a bit differently aesthetically (different nose/front wing, rear wing, sidepods, …).
A slightly different way of doing this for the seasons after the first could be that at the end of each season every team receives an amount of R&D points based on the constructors standings (like prize money in real life) and the player selects an area of the car that needs to be developed more, like weight reduction and redistribution (or even more in general, the chassis of the car, including also tyre wear upgrades, etc.) and the team will spend all the bonus R&D points on that area. Then at pre-season testing the different packages are all about the other parts of the car (so if, for example, the player chose to put the bonus points on the chassis, that’s already been developed and the testing packages are going to be about aerodynamics and engine (and reliability)). (Like a smaller additional work that has beed done by the team during winter, added to what was asked by the player).
In these winter testing sessions you should be able to earn more R&D points than in normal free practice sessions and be able to spend these only on bigger, but much longer, upgrades (meaning that when you buy an upgrade in pre-season testing it costs a lot more, but is a very big upgrade and it will take 5-10 races (also based on the season length selected, anyway approximately around one-third of the season) to be completed (with a small failure chance).
This should come with a reduction of the upgrades that can be done during the season, to keep things more balanced.
