Make sure to buy all upgrades, and only buy the best. Make the car as powerful and light as allowed and don't forget things like a racing transmission, double clutch, racing suspension, rigidity improvment etc. You don't need to buy everything all the time, but if you can't beat it, invest. Then try to find the best gear ratio - depending on the engine characteristics it is not always the best idea to make it too short. In general I'd say : at the fastest part of the track you should still have about 500 rpm before you hit the max rpm. Suspension : lowest possible.
settings :
active steering : strong
( the one above active steering, sth like drift-stop translated word by word from my German menu ) : on
ABS : 1
rest : off
I did gold on all 10 seasonal events, and I'm not the best driver out there.