Give players the choice between whether they wanna choose their start position manually, up to the third place like now, with incremental difficulty and payout the lower in the grid, or use the lap time in the free practice as a qualifications round, with an increased payout for being able to start in the first 3 positions and an incremental difficulty bonus the lower on the grid.
So far the experience feels all but authentic, it has a feeling of artificial challenge.
Unfortunately, this would mean improving the Drivatar behavior since they tend to be uncompetitive in many situations. Minor cups is surely made by amateurs so wouldn’t be that irrealistico to have somehow slower and less difficult AI at lower stages but at higher ranks they should become a real challenge, to make a good qualifications time and a start from pole position a challenge in keeping the spot, still giving the players a reason to fight to stay on top, instead of forgetting about the AI existence after a few km