What determines difficulty [cars]?

[Mental Paradox]

I've found from experience that difficulty in this game (I speak of Professional/Simulation, I've never touched Sport) sometimes feels random. It seems that in some cars I always win, and in some cars I always lose.

For example, I used to do quite well in the 2022 Romain Dumas car, winning most events by a smallish margin. Then I unlocked Terranova's 2022 car, supposedly the best car in the game (certainly the most expensive) and suddenly the AI were crushing me. I get a much better car, and yet suddenly the AI are destroying me. I swap back to Dumas' car, I start winning again. Another such example is the Zephyrs in the SxS category. I always seem to win in those, by massive margins. Won the 2020 Dakar Experience by an HOUR, while on a previous attempt I lost by 40 minutes (in a car). Another car I can't seem to perform well in no matter what is Ari Vatanen's Peugeot. AI destroys me with unrealistic times every time. In the trucks, the cheapest beginner truck I bought still wins me rallies - while the expensive Kamaz are useless as driving them causes the AI to learn to fly and set unrealistically fast stage times.

So what's going on here? Anyone have any "hot tips" on great cars to drive, that somehow cause the AI to fall asleep behind the wheel?

[Komoneer]

I feel exactly the same... Depending on the car, sometimes I can win easily, and sometimes on the same stage it's very hard with another car type, or another team (for the same car type). I wonder if the team score doesn't influence the AI difficulty?