Feedback / first impressions

Just thought I`d share my firt impressions here.

To start at the end, I think this could grow into a great game, but to me it isn`t quite there yet.

Controllers:
I tried it with a Xbox360 controller and with my Fanatec CSR.
Playing with the gamepad felt rather weird. Maybe it could be tweaked through the settings, but frankly I have no clue what those settings are supposed to do. I`ve never before seen a controller setting named "gamma". :/
Proper naming would help, tool tips as well.
The CSR wheel was a nightmare to set up. I had "combined pedals" ticked in the drivers, which the game translated into throttle and brake on one pedal. After changing the driver setting, I couldn`t change the brake, because it refused to overwrite what was set for the clutch. Took a while to find that tiny "clear" button.
I got it to work eventually, after about an hour, not a smooth start.

Menus:
I love the design, I hate the functionality.
Well, it works perfect with a mouse, but it works with mouse only. I have my wheel in front of the TV, my mouse is at the PC, out of reach. Even my secondary wireless keyboard can`t safe me, since using arrow keys is no option. On the wheel/controller itself there isn`t even a pause-button to be assigned, let alone a way to do at least basic navigation like up/down in the pause menu.
For hotlapping this is an annoyance, starting a race will downright not work that way for me (unless I manage to sprint from PC to TV whithin the countdown time ...)

Graphics:
The cars look great, the animation is great. Shifting/wheel-turning anims are amongst the best I`ve seen yet, and the suspension on open-wheelers look nice.
The environment is by no means bad, but doesn`t keep up imo. Particularly the road surface looks a bit flat, some skid marks would help it (mostly talking about Imola, didn`t play the other tracks much yet). The sand/gravel texture is freaking noisey.
Replays look outstanding, perfect camera angles.

Sound:
Why does the hood-camera have the same muffled far-away sound like third person?
Imo it should have a similar or the same sound like cockpit view, at least that`s what I am used to from other games. Let me put it this way: The muffled hood view sound is bad, the cockpit sound is great.

Physics:
For me, totally hit&miss.
I had good fun driving the Formula Abarth and the BMW. The cars behaved more or less as I would expect.
With the X-Bow I had no clue what was going on at all. It seemed to go directly from understeer to spin-out with nothing in between. Similar experience with the Classic Formula Lotus.
I`ll add I am used to games like Forza and Project Cars, so probably this is a different kind or level of simulation.
But well, to me those not-so-good cars just didn`t feel intuitive.

Force Feedback:
Felt very good imo. The curbs could have some more rumble / vibration on the CSR though.
But in general I`d say it is pretty much on top.