But are they really not far off? Having a 7 pace difference between Piastri and Norris in favor of Norris when Piastri was on average faster in quali (i will only use the first two races for this whole reply to match the likely frame of races they based it on), just by 0.025s but still, not 2-3 tenths slower which is 7 pace difference.
Antonelli vs Russel pace is more fair in that regard as Antonelli struggled in quali in Australia, the 14 gap in pace rating actually gets close to the early average. (only using same session times, not comparing a Q3 time to Q1 time)
Verstappen - Lawson (which they likely used as Lawson was still at Red Bull for the first two) is abysmally wrong, the average is ~0.875 which would be close to a ~25 gap in pace and is 11 in the game, meaning Lawson would qualify in Q3 at times if at Red Bull..
Tsunoda - Hadjar is also laughable, ~0.03s gap IRL and 13 pace gap (~4.5 tenths) - quite big difference
Sainz - Albon 0.115s gap IRL and 3 pace in game, which would be right, if it were the right way around, favouring Albon instead of Sainz - not too big difference but wrong tendency
Leclerc - Hamilton actually just 0.05s for Leclerc IRL due to Hamiltons quali in China, 3 pace ingame is double the gap but not too drastic - fine gap
Gasly - Doohan is difficult as Doohan bottled his Q2 in Australia but comparing his Q1 to Gaslys Q2 for once gives a smaller, more realistic gap -> 0.15s IRL, 8 pace gap ingame ~3 tenths, too big gap but not horrible considering following qualis and races
Alonso - Stroll 0.06s IRL, 11 pace gap ingame = ~0.4s quite far off for this season, not what it should be like at all!
Bortoleto - Hülkenberg irl first two races just 0.08s ingame 5 pace gap which isnt terribly off but feels wrong with Hülkenberg being so far down - just emphasisis again the faulty method of balancing the car performances with worse driver ratings (in this case making Hülkenberg and Bortoleto slower to match the bad Sauber but thats not just a problem with Sauber!)
Bearman - Ocon -> Only one qualifying for both 0.14s gap but 12 pace gap ingame = ~4-4.5 tenths, way too big for how bearman performs this year and has performed last year!
So we have the pairings of Mclaren, Red Bull, Racing Bulls, Aston Martin and Haas quite wrong, half the teams with a way too big difference that cant be reasonably explained
Williams and Mercedes very on edge, wrong tendency and quickly outdated stats but not too bad for the first two races..
The other three are acceptable comparisons between drivers internally but not necessarily in comparison to other teams.
What it should rather look like for pace rating only is
Norris 92- Piastri 92
Russel 92 - Antonelli 82 (giving Antonelli a bit of a bump already before the Miami results, with Miami it would be 82)
Verstappen 95 - Lawson 77 (both Lawson and Hadjar are tough to make a good rating as every driver but Verstappen underperforms in that Red Bull
Tsunoda 86 - Hadjar 84 (still not ideal but somewhere in the middle between all the factors we gotta put in
Albon 89 - Sainz 86 (Sainz has higher potential but doesnt match well with the Williams early on, if he performs on level with Albon hed be closer to his past pace - 1 tenth off average to Leclerc -
Leclerc 93 - Hamilton 91
Gasly 88 - Doohan 82
Alonso 83 - Stroll 81
Hülkenberg 89 - Bortoleto 85
Ocon 88 - Bearman 84
And make the backmarker cars worse to keep the gaps (Sauber, Haas, Aston Martin actually doesnt even need a nerf most likely) Gaps for Tsunoda and Lawson would need to be bigger to match their deficit to Verstappen but making Tsunoda a 80 wouldnt fit his performances compared to Gasly and Gasly hasnt been much worse than Albon whos beating Sainz..