Drivatar behavior bug with connected wheel (repeatable)

Noticing a strange pattern with the drivatars: with a connected wheel I’m considerably slower than the drivatars at accelerating out of the hole. Upon disconnecting wheel, and switching to controller, at same (pro) difficulty, I accelerate past the pack into the first bend. I first started noticing this pattern in the Batham Gate (first Street race). I can confirm; my Subaru STI with connected wheel (thrustmaster Tmx) gets passed by the Escort before the first bend, wheras with the controller I accelerate, HARD, past it, as well as the Aston Martin and several others upon reaching the first bend.

I have trialed, by restarts, several times, with both scenarios, and the behavior is repeatable. Please forward this to the devs, or place into whichever thread necessary, to have this examined. Thank you.

PS this is not a hardware or threshold (deadzone) related problem. Wheel is not malfunctioning on any other racing titles.