MyTeam Career Settings, Practice Programs and AI Difficulty

Hi, 

I would love to hear some opinions about my MyTeam Career Settings and tips / advice on getting the most fun out of the game.

I want to make a long-term career with slow progression and challenge while not having it be too frustrating.

Career Settings, Progress & Practice Sessions

 Right now I have set EVERYTHING to "Reduced". I used to set my own settings to "reduced" and the AI settings all to "standard" or "increased" to provide more difficulty but I dont want the AI cars and Personnel stuff to be maxed out so fast.

To cover up for that, I contemplated not "simulating" Practice Sessions at all because this results in you pretty much always getting max R/D Points. Realistically, you are a "junior driver" and you shouldn't be able to earn more RnD Points in Practice than the most experienced driver in the field. 

This brings me to Practice Programs. I actually think it is good that they provide a challenge for the reason stated above. Because I am not a fan of lowering difficulty artifically for Practice Sessions, I am trying to make them on the difficulty that I also do the quali and race in. I might adjust it after P1 if I see that the difficulty is not set correctly by a huge margin (I always compare myself with my nearest rivals, as my Teammate is just completely off pace (Oscar Piastri)).

This means I will sometimes succeed at Practice Programs, but often I will not. The issue is that there are some Programs that I feel like I can NEVER do, like Quali Sim. It is just impossible for me. Race Strategy I sometimes manage to achieve at least green, with using a lot of ERS.

So, the question here is, keeping in mind that I don't want to max out on Research Points and nail all Programs, should I still lower it a bit due to it being unrealistically difficult and if so, by how much (maybe u have experience).

Also, what do u think about the idea of not simulating Practice Programs to slow progress down instead of doing it through the career settings?

AI Difficulty

Right now, I am using a base difficulty and adjusting the difficulty after P1 according to my results relative to my direct rivals (and teammate).

For Bahrain, I started with a difficulty of 90. I qualified P16 and ended the race in P13. It seemed okay but I thought maybe I could push the limits more, as Bahrain seems to me a circuit where the AI is very strong.

For Saudi-Arabia, I tried 100 and it worked quite well. I qualified P17 and also ended the race in P17. Given my car is the 2nd worst on the grid (though nearly on par with Aston Martin), I found that to be appropriate.

My problem is that it feels like cheating to lower the AI difficulty, even though realistically it is not, given I always try to match my direct rivals. But of course, this is also skill-related. If I am worse at a certain track, I will be slower and artifically lower the difficulty instead of putting the effort into improving my driving. 

So, do you recommend just sticking to one difficulty and pulling through (in my case it would be 100), trying to maximize my driving, or keep adjusting with the risk of hindering personal driving skill progress.

Thanks in advance!

Greetings