My opinions on this:
-It would be better if it were more transparent that the DR/SR you get from Daily Races seem to feed into the championship races, in that a better DR (which can only be obtained with better SR) will get you a field of opponents with similarly-higher DR, and thus a given position will net you more points than if the field had a lower DR, which would in turn be more likely if you had lower DR yourself.
-IMO the championships should do something similar to what ranked multiplayer in Pokemon does: have a separate ladder for each ruleset. As this would apply to GTS (or its successor), Daily Races would become unranked, and more akin to the Quick Match feature in GT6. In fact, Sport Mode as a whole would be mostly championships, especially if there could be more official championships under the tab like the GR Supra Cup, or championships that were held via lobbies. (I recall Alonso having one for his new eSports team, as did Playstation Italy.) However, there could also be championship time trial series (which also could include time attack/hillclimb/rally, potentially) instead of purely race-based championships, or even a drift series, given how many drift-spec cars have been in the series. (The most recent example being that modded BR-Z.)
-Next, for Sport Mode races, I think all events there should be limited to provided cars (making credits a non-issue), typically use a limited group of cars for most classes (like the FF Gr.4 cars as a recent example, or the Group C cars within Gr.1 for a hypothetical), and disable tuning & custom liveries. However, cars/drivers that have been customized (either via settings or livery) could still be used in Lobbies, which could also have their own rich diversity options, including for creating their own championships (even points awarded for each system) and qualifying methods (perhaps if they wanted to replicate Formula E's rules, for example.). To avoid all cars looking the same in Sport Mode, you could be randomly assigned an "official" livery much akin to those used by AI drivers in the campaign, where the livery given to which player goes in an order by their DR. So if a car has a single default livery, the player with the highest DR using that car would have that appearance, then the player with the 2nd-highest DR also using that car would use the first of a series of AI liveries. By default, Sport Mode races would have light damage and 1x fuel/tire consumption, with realistic traction off-road/wet surface & slipstream. Some may even have mandatory pit stops, too, or start players with less fuel. Qualifying would also be something that can only be done more-or-less before the race, like we see in extant championships - but I'd also give a bit more space between cars, and potentially have the duration either be limited by time (like we see now, typically being 10mins) or by lap count, not counting the outlap. In addition, depending on the class of car that's featured in a race, I'd either use penalty zones (and add some to some courses, especially the Nordschiefe with both Pflanzgarten turns) or something more like the older penalty method, except you wouldn't be able to potentially serve a penalty by slowing down - it'd be taken off your finishing time, instead. (Isn't that how F1 does it? I'm not sure.)
What would also be considered tuning when it's disabled would be the following:
1. The ability to have "inter-class N-series cars," such as using BoP to bring an N200 car's power to about 246HP so that it technically becomes an N300 car, and letting BoP do the rest to make it usable in an N300 race.
2. The tuning of brake balance, TCS, and ABS, (both in-garage and on-track) and fuel-mapping in cars that do not typically have it. (I.e. many N-series cars, though in the campaign or lobbies, some of these cars may be able to have these abilities by purchasing certain parts, much like getting a fully customizable transmission/suspension.) This would also include transmissions, where you would be stuck with the transmission a car typically comes with, but this can vary quite a bit, between MT, AT, MT /w/ clutch, CVT, or even semi-auto transmissions where you can go between auto & manual on-the-go. The gear count would match with the transmission option for that car. So if PD scanned a car that had a certain transmission, and the model can have multiple transmission options (e.g. MT vs AT), and there's also a discrepancy between the gears for each transmission option, PD could have that car come with the amount of gears that come with that respective transmission option which was on the individual car they scanned.
3. This is a relatively minor thing, but I'd have the unit readout be dependent on the car. So the USDM Nissan GT-R Premium Edition that we see in GTS to have an imperial unit readout while the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 would have a metric readout. This, alongside the second point I made, would add further personality to the cars.
However, on rare occasions, some races/championships may indeed permit tuning, especially if the provided car(s) include vehicles that have the respective upgrades installed. (I recall a Nations Cup race with the Mercedes-AMG W08 like this.) Or, even if they do not allow tuning, a championship/race may still provide a tuned car, much like we've seen for some Daily Races. If tuning is permitted, sometimes not all options will be available - in some cases, you might only be able to tune suspension, downforce, or gear ratios, or even a combination thereof while still not being able to tune every potential parameter. (E.g. being able to tune downforce and gear ratios, but not LSD.)
(As an aside, the number of changes for a car under its stats is something that I think is superfluous, as I believe total distance driven is the superior indicator of how much a car is being used. I'd also make the camera so that when entering the pits, we can continuously view our car as it enters the pit lane and meets with our respective crew. Finally, I'd add the rearview mirror to the hood cam, and not make it exclusive to the bumper-cam; though I am pretty sure this is due to hardware limitations, as there's nothing else being rendered in bumper-cam.)
I’m only just getting back to the top of B I hope I can get back to A soon.
