Always beyond race expectations

[severe dew]

not for me, i ended up 2 or 3 laps down in my first season of create a team for a season and a bit, u must just be master team principle

[wide shuttle]

The game calculates an average for all stats when determining your car ranking. The problem is those stats are definitely not equal, cornering stats are way way more important than DRS. So, if you do the development right and concentrate on the important stats you will always be way faster than what the game ranks you.

[tepid mist]

is it a straight/unweighted average (and are you sure about this?)

I only ask because the game weights driver stats somewhat appropriately (for example: cornering is given 4x the weighting of less-important/more situational stats like overtaking and adaptability)