The AI seems to be a little better with longer races. Yesterday I ran a race at 30% and won fairly easily in a Virgin, but today I tried 50% and the AI was a lot more competetive. Yes, Legendary AI, no driving aids. Part of it was probably me having to save tires and going around kerbs to avoid punctures, but part of it was also that the AI just paces itself much better the longer the race goes. I still finished 9th quite comfortably and took the fastest lap, but at least it was a race! Then again, I was driving an HRT so I still would have smashed them in a proper car.
A little annoying, really. I'm not even a particularly good racer as far as iRacing and such goes. Codies just need to add two more difficulty levels and it'll be all good.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and just to throw in a positive, I think I've finally figured out how exactly to drive these cars. Now I can really push them far enough and make them slide and twitch just a little bit, like they do in real life. That's kind of awesome.