Solved

High Talent Youth Academy

I've noticed that the drivers Im getting in level 18 and 19 Youth Academy has been worse than the drivers I saw in level 17. Right now, the drivers that can be scouted barely pass talent 21, yet on level 17 I regularly saw talent 25+ in every refresh. Is there a reason for this, and at what level can talent 30s start to appear?

I don't think the drivers in 18/19 are 'worse', you might've just gotten really lucky while it was level 17, and so far, unlucky at 18 and 19. Give it time, higher talent drivers will appear soon. From my observation, T30s can appear as low as level 17-18 (rare, but possible). However, by level 22/23, they seem to be showing up semi-consistently. On another account that has a L23 YDA, there's been several T30s in the past recently. Hope you get one soon!

I see, I thought the new updates decreased the high talent spawn rate (not sure if this one is true) but maybe you're right, I've gotten unlucky to the point where somehow even passing talent 20 is hard currently.