I'm having a similar problem. Playing on PC/Steam, using a Fanatec CSL DD with McLaren GT3 v2 wheel. The game detects the wheel, and during gameplay everything functions as expected. But I'm unable to navigate the menus with the wheel, as neither the funkyswitch (d-pad) nor the buttons themselves will do anything. Especially problematic is that I can't even pause the game from the wheel...I have to keep a keyboard nearby and hit Escape, which is rather inconvenient.
When I look at the devices that the game has detected, it shows my wheel and a keyboard. If I look at the list of keyboard bindings, there are entries for menu navigation. But the wheel has no such entries when I look at its bindings list.