I realise this may be difficulty to put into practise but would it be a possibility to make qualifying more interesting by involving managers input. I wasn't thinking about actually the animation of the cars on track although that would be awesome trying to get a clear track or waiting for ideal conditions. Maybe give each league a 30min to an hour window before the race to do 1 or maybe 3 flying laps. You could also add a risk factor so that the highest push level has the possible risk of either going off the track or having an accident. This would also take into account a drivers skill level. So an accident would result in the driver starting at the back of the starting grid while going off the track would result in a slower time. The lowest push level would result in no risk but a slower lap.
Another idea I had would be the ability to spend money or tokens on training the pit crew because at the moment it is all a bit sporadic. I do realise that upgrading the HQ improves the pit crew but maybe being able to train them yourself would satisfy more managers and leave less up to chance.
Maybe it could be something that starts simple and can have stuff added to it later on. You could even give managers the ability to choose between automatic and manual qualifying but with those choosing manual qualifying having an advantage or even giving each league the ability to choose which way they would like to qualify.
drew