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Starting Fresh - Beginner needs help

So, I have been playing this game on and off now since before Christmas and the reason for this is I suck! I'm struggling to understand and it annoys me then I stop but this game keeps pulling me back because I love the concept and want to be good at it.

So for me to understand I have a few questions I would like to ask before starting again to see if I can progress up the leagues and earn myself some points.

So here is the start of a few questions, and I'm starting off from ground zero so I'm probably going to cover a lot of base's and I know you are meant to figure this out yourself like some of you here will have but I would like to pick your brains! :)

(also, I have found bits and bobs for answers to some of these but I thought I just get clarity on these anyway)

1. Sponsors:
Is there a benefit to taking a sponsor which will give you tokens over a sponsor which pays out more money?
Car sponsors, does it matter which ones you choose?

2. Headquarters:
Should I be focusing on a particular part of the HQ to upgrade or upgrade all at the same level?

3.Staff:
Do having staff from the same country/language have any effect? What should be the number one stat im looking for, Talent/Experience/Moral?

4. Drivers:
Kind of the same question as above, what stats should I be looking for when buying a new driver? When should I be looking for new drivers? each time I level up? is training worth it when you start out at a low level and level up fast?

5. The car:
Are there particular stats on a car I should focus on upgrading over others? Cooling and reliability seem to be ones that don't get as much attention as other areas of the car for other people

6. Practice & Strategy:
This area has a lot of questions for me
A) when running the practice lap, is this the highest tire wear and fuel consumption you'll see? From what I've seen in my races I'm always left with 30% on tires when I put using this data?
B) in the forums I've seen people saying they would put in less fuel to do X number of laps, but isn't the number of laps determined by the amount of fuel you put in? how can they put in less to do the same number/more laps?
C) When running in the race does tire temp play a part in how fast your car is or does this just degrade your tires faster?
D) what is the best way to run practice and strategy?

Sorry for the long post with multiple questions but just a few things I couldn't get my head around

1) At the very beginning you need tokens as well as cash. Later, you don't need tokens so much. Go for sponsors that give you most cash without performance bonus because at the beginning you will suck.

2) 1. Design 2. Technology. 3 Parts 4. Simulator/Hospitality

3) Doesn't matter anymore. Level of stars is what's most important now. Nationality & gender doesn't matter

4) Talent is the most important. This cannot be trained so go for highest possible number for your driver. Then train driving abilities first, Mental 2nd and physical 3rd.

5) Handling, Downforce, Acceleration. Most important. Possibly braking too. Go for CD's with strengths in these areas.

6) During practice, try different push levels and observe fuel/tyre data. Make decisions based on this. It will all depend on your race strategy and that will depend on driver and car levels. Experiment and make lots of mistakes. Learn what works best for you and what doesn't by recording data. Do a race report after each race. Record setups, tyre wear, pit stop times etc etc. You'll soon start to get a system happening and have mastery and begin to do well.

Good luck!

Great answers Jack!
I'd just like to add about tire (tyre!?:D) temps. When the tires are hot they don't grip, same goes for too cold.
Edit: oh and the different push levels now don't make any difference to the practice runs :(

I thought my fuel usage and tyre wear changed slightly with different push levels during practice runs.

Yeah, just saw the update form Jack that this no longer applies......

OK, I try to answer with my experience so far:

1. Go for the 3 token sponsor paying the most money. You will need token to accelerate things and on top on that you can buy additional money with token as well with 1 token roughly worth 1 million. For the secondary sponsor you usually should go for the most fixed money. The requirements to get that bonus change from race to race and it's more how you did at your previous race than your actual chances, so the only way you can count on bonus money is if you're pretty sure to win every race.

2. Design, Manufacturing or Technology depends if you want to spend tokens on parts, if not Manufacturing has to be kept roughly the same level as Design, else Technology because you want good DRS and KERS because there's little more frustrating than the own cars always ending up being at the end of any car chain in DRS distance. Then Simulator to boost your driver training but that can wait a little until you get driver you want to keep for a while. I disagree with Jack on Offices/Hospitality because I consider it the least important building and to be ignored until there's nothing else left to build.

3.Only the stars rating matters and you should jump at any chance to get better ones. Be carefull of staff above an age of 60, they may want to retire and you can't fire them before contracts end (you can but pay the full wage anyway only at once). CDs are somewhat of an exception because here their strength and weakness matter and a good set might be worth a star

4. As already said talent. To add would be age because young driver train better and thus it doesn't matter as much if the other skills are already good or less so and they can grow with the team for longer

5. The big 3 seem to be Downforce, Handling and Acceleration and a bit behind Braking. Which one of those matters most depends on the track and the managers preference. Tyre economy comes into play to make softer compounds work or races on hotter days.

6. A) Practice shows the initial tyre wear but it decreases the more worn the tyre gets. It's quite fitting you end up with 30% because lap times start to decline around 40% and you don't want to run less than 30% unless you figure the strategy is worth those now often quite slower laps.

B) You can't go further with less fuel. What they mean is that the prediction in strategy calculates with a higher fuel consumption than you actually get in the race. Perhaps as a safety reserve if you race with higher push level than you set in strategy which causes higher fuel consumption.

C) Yes, at ideal temperature your tyres are the fastest, but a higher push level can make more than up for it. To get that balance right is the fine art but don't worry, it starts to really matter if the teams are really close otherwise and I reckon there are really few manager that always get it right. I know I don't :-)

D) Practice concentrate first to find out your drivers prefered setups and note that so you know the season after where to start. This setup changes with drivers and even with them training up. After that you can experiment with different tyres and their effect on times but be aware that these are a bit misleading, after the first lap, the effects of temperature and possible push change the results by quite a lot. With strategy there's nothing like spectating races, clicking through other leagues races and look what they did and how it went. Be aware that the Elite teams usually now their strategies but it often doesn't work for Rookie or even Pro due to the difference in car and drivers. Thumb rule, the higher/better your team gets the softer the tyres get that will work best.

@Jack: They did until two days ago.