Solved

First season has just ended

Hello,

So as the title says, I just completed my first season in Rookie. Turn out we only had 4 active managers in the end so I made top 4 and got promoted... go me! :p 
I actually had a good final couple races and won a few.
I still have a couple questions.
1) In the end I maxed out Acceleration but I had bonuses in that. Did I waste design points by doing that? Max is 50 if I have +10 can I still go to 50 and have an edge over opponents with my +10 or did I waste 10 points. I've been told different things about that. I know Elite it would max at 190 but some people said Rookie and Pro were different and you could go over the cap.
2) I tried a one stop strategy last season and it was a disaster, I then read that getting over 50 liters in the car was a huge disadvantage and some even suggested 40. So having a slim driver means you can have more room for the fuel / a lighter car for the same amount of fuel or are the two unrelated? Is the 40 or 50 liters based off having a maxed out weight attibute?
3)Do lv 20 players get 20 design points per race if they have a lv 20 design facility? How do people go about getting their facilities leveled up? Get one of the facility to their player level and then switching to another one? I feel like design and technology are pretty good then maybe manufacturing then simulator and then youth aca since I already found a T20 on the market. I'm not sure what office does though.
4) How rare is it to see a 5 star CD in transfer? I seem to only see 4.5 stars most of the time. I always end up getting a 4.5 CD with a good strength and weakness. 
5) I see many people using soft in Elite and even in my new Pro league and going pretty much as far as I can on my Medium. I thought going under 40% would be bad but it doesn't seem to be all that terrible or is tyre economy really good even if I keep reading the contrary in guides?
6) Are T20 women slightly better drivers since they weight less in the end?
7) What matters the most earlier on? Right now the fastest cars in my league are much faster than me. I'm gaining 10+ from reasearch every races so they do have much better cars (and drivers). Would a maxed out car with an average driver win over an average car with a maxed driver?
8) Should I always only focus on the "big 4" with my design and research. Last season I decided to go for a bit of everything later on as I thought maybe gaining 12 in fuel economy was better than 2 downforce?
9) Are people changing staff every time they level up? I didn't in my first season as I gained 9 levels so I would have been changing almost every 2 races and it felt inefficient but now I do not level as fast it seems.
10) How does the auction work. is the extra "bidding war" always happening when there are at least 2 bids or do they have to be close to the end for that? I guess the idea is to prevent sniping at the last second?

So far I noticed that: 
Attending races is a big advantage and the reason I won some of my races last season and that I am not doing too terribly this season in Pro.
The auction system is a bit of a annoyance and it feels unconvenient as I have to come back in 2-3h to see and I'd much rather pay 9 tokens but that gets expensive fast.
I should build my technology facility so I stop looking like I'm standing still when someone is close enough for KERS.
From what I read people change their push level a lot more than I do.
This game is very fun.

Right then, here we go:
1) No, they're only wasted in ELITE, anywhere else you can go above cap.
2) Driver weight is not currently active in the game, 50+l just is too heavy.
3) Design and Technology are the main 2, with manufacturing important as well. Keep it at a level where your net parts gain/loss is around 0 or +1 and focus on the 'Main' 2. Offices don't really do anything and driver academy is good, as long as it isn't in the way of a 'Main 2' ugrade.
4) I'm not 100% sure but I think a 5* and a 4.5* CD at your level is almost no difference. Anyway, 4.5* is fine.
5) Depends on your race difference (and fuel economy)! I can only really talk about 50% and 75%, but in my experience 50% suits mediums quite well, and even 75% they are a useful tyre.
6)*refer to my answer for 2*
7) Building for the future. Setting your accrue well is the single most Important factor, even if that means delaying promotion by a season. Trust me, for elite you will need all the preparation you can get!
8) If your 'big 4' are competitive then yes, you can make bigger gains by researching fuel economy, and perhaps even the economy. However, never research cooling and reliability as I am sure you know, as they are inactive.
9) Post level 7 or 8, yes, unless you will level up within the next few races.
10) If there are 2 boss in any round, it progresses forward a round and everyone who didn't bid on that round is eliminated. Only bid once a round, every round, until either you feel you should stop (or don't have any more tokens) or your 'opponent' does.

In the push level thing, there is a trick which is really important if you are fighting up at the top. Tyres cool in the corners and heat up in the straights, so you can push accordingly (hard on the corners, light on the straights) and consequently keep the tyres at the same temp despite running higher push.

This game is indeed very fun, as shown by my multitude of accounts.

oh wow weight isn't active? So if I got lucky and am at 60 kg but 20 stamina I should just switch to race attribute?

Now, you could, but I would train it as when it comes in it will be very important.

Awesome, thanks a lot :)

I also had a few other things I was wondering about. 

Do people usually go for more stable money or more objective based money? I seem to have come out about even in my first season and I had lower salaries than I will later. I see some drivers earning 1M+ and mine is at 450K. I really wonder how people do it in 2 cars league. Maybe facilities upgrade take longer and longer so it gets better there. In my first season I expected to be fighting for 15th+ so I picked the stable income but some managers weren't very active and I could ended up meeting my objective most race but not all. 

Speaking of which what is it based on? Last season towards the end if I won a race I had to win the next to earn the extra money. Sadly I won some races in the rain due to favorites racing in dry and then got beaten again the next race when it was on even ground. This season, I did much better than the objective the last few races and it's slowly coming down so I meet it every race. 

Is it better to get an extra training in and start the race at say 95% health or to start the race at 100% and train after.

thanks again!

Always try and start the race at 100% health. That is the single most important factor and why stamina is so important as a driver attribute.

The objectives are roughly based on reputation, level, last race and championship position of you and your team. If, like the account I answered with earlier, you 'over-perform' and easily meet your target every race, then sponsors like Tommy Hilfiger can pay dividends, but as the game is designed so you meet your target about 2/3 of the time, often someone like WTF1 is better.
Your sponsors income is based on level, so as you level up an pay more to staff etc., you will get more income as well.