Funny to call it an "admission" when it was never, ever a secret.
It's basically the definition of "it's not a bug, it's a feature". The community catches up, they raise the difficulty ceiling.
Ceiling. As long as there's a proper floor for any one's skill level though, it's work as intended: the game shifts up to accommodate both poles of the player base, the ones pushing and beating the AI on high level and the ones still building their skill set. Exactly as Ultra said.
Every year we've got guides on how to properly adjust the AI, from the official Codemasters channels to acclaimed Youtubers. They all reasonably converge on method and approach. That's another oddity of this post: if you're admittedly following your own protocol to set the AI level and consistently post write about your off mark results, how can you consider yourself qualified to complain about a "difficulty spike" in the franchise?
What I mean is you should adhere to the devs' guidelines, properly set the game difficulty, and raise your issue if you cannot find an AI range that suits your skill level.
You say you're not an eSports player. We believe that. The game still needs to challenge those players though. If you can find a suitable difficulty range, and they can find one too, we're all the better for it. There's no "AI is too fast" if the 0-110 blanket still warms your feet.
The game is still made by Codemasters. As it has always been. The good chap answering all our questions about physics and handling here on this forum? The very same David Greco that made all the "Codemasters F1" games you love.
