What you’re complaining about is realism. The games should always be moving towards greater realism, not going backwards. Reverting to something more like FM4 would be making it more arcadey.
Went back to FM4 due to xbox one repairs and the physics are night and day. Everything seems to drive good in FM4. Cars that I remember having a tough time with are actually easy for me to drive now. I forgot how aggressive you could drive cars in FM4 and still stick the corners. I have a B class holden hsv gts in FM4 that is super heavy and doesn’t turn well (or at least thats how I remember the handling) but when I drove it flew around the ring. If I tried that in FM5 the car would be a handful at times.The one thing I do like about FM5 is that you can tell when you’re losing traction and depending on how well you know the car you can make an adjustment if neccessary. The rumble stuff in FM5 for the controller is a major improvement that I took for granted.
The physics in 5 are diff than they are in 4. I haven’t noticed any less traction compare to 4. Just diff physics and a slightly diff tunning style.
That’s what I hate most about Forza, “you can make any car a drift car.” Gran Turismo has slowly taken over my racing game life after several months and two years of Forza, and Gran Turismo’s physics are, in my opinion, more unrealistic than those in Forza, because you could turn off every assist and still not have any problems controlling the car, even at a slow corner at full throttle in an F1 car.
Tyre grip is actually quite well modelled in FM5. Maybe too well. People are often caught out by unexpected variations in surface grip, or the lively suspension physics. Stay on the racing line and respect weight shift and you’ll be fine. If that doesn’t work, you’re either going too fast or simply aren’t the virtual driver you think you are.
So much more realistic in FM5 than any other Forza.
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I was late to XB1 and FM5 too (I picked it up mid July), and I have noticed quite a big difference between the FM4 and FM5. I played FM4 right up until I picked up FM5, and I was well informed about all of the differences from my club mates and friends.
What blew me away when I first started playing FM5 was how much more realistic the physics were. In addition to console Simcades, I play PC racing Sims (Assetto Corsa, Raceroom, etc.), and FM5 “feels” closer to Sims than FM4 did; however, like the GranTurismo series, Forza Motorsport is and always will be Simcade. They have to be in order to be successful. Most of the the successful Sims (iRacing, Raceroom, etc.) rely on micro transactions and monthly memberships, since initial title sales would not sustain their continued development.
Back to FM4 versus FM5… FM5 “feels” more realistic. The cars behave the way I expect them to behave. Especially when it comes to tires (both width and compound), and suspension. Using sport suspension with sport tires versus race suspension (tuned) with sport tires in FM5 nets quite a big difference in handling. In FM4, that was not the case. At least not on the scale it is in FM5. Tuning is more predictable as well. In FM4, tuning didn’t always work the way it should have. As a test I actually ported several of my tunes from FM4 to FM5, and I found that some worked as good or better in FM5 and some didn’t work at all.
As a matter of fact, there are quite a few FM5 B-Class and A-Class I have built that are VERY grippy with no race aero. The majority of my FM4 A-Class and S-Class top performers all have race aero. Without it, they were way too loose and no amount of tuning could change that. In FM5, Race Aero provides high speed grip like I expect it to do. It takes a car that already has decent grip and gives it more allowing it to maintain higher speeds in mid to high speed corners. In FM4, it acted more like another level of tire compound was added taking a poorer handling car and turning it into a grip machine. This is not the case in FM5, and that’s the way it should be.
As an FM4 tuner and now and FM5 tuner, I can tell you that tuning actually works in FM5. Following real world tuning principles actually work in FM5. That was not always the case in FM4. There was something about FM4 that was just not right about how it all worked together.
As for FM4 having more “grip”, it does when you compare it to stock or cars with sport suspensions. When you compare well tuned cars, FM5 is much better. I say much better because it’s not just about grip. It’s really about how it all comes together on a fully tuned car.
If you have FM3, try playing that for a bit… You want to talk about grip? Cars in FM3 feel like they are riding on rails when compared to FM4 & FM5… 
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I remember the XB1+FM5 first day. Getting thrown into the initial races in fast cars (I hate that!), it was difficult to ‘savour’ the fine black box art of tire simulation but the difference could clearly be felt.
Honestly, I cannot remember FM1/2/3/4 physics/tire feel but I can say I love FM5 physics/tire modelling. I chose FM series because of the fact that the series allowed tire pressure tuning and showed tire temperatures.
2 things about tires that are still mysterious to me are:
- Why do the race tires seem to stabilize at 230 deg F? or at 210 deg F?
- Why do the tires have clear temperature gradient, from Inside-Middle-Outside, during warm up but all temperatures equalize within few 10th of a degree when fully warmed up?
I frequently get my best times on lap 2 or 3 when the tires are just coming up to temperature. For a race tire that stabilizes at 230 deg F, what can I do to bring the temperature back to, say, 220 deg F?