Tried easy but there is no change whatsoever in the AI strength from what I can tell???
Changing driving model from pro to standard certainly seem to help with the tire wear. But maybe there is no tire wear in standard mode and it´s not just the TC and abs that counteract it?
Tyre wear and mechanical damage are definitely off on Standard mode, the real difference between Pro and Standard is how heavily assisted the steering is for gamepads, of course, with the effects of TC and ABS you do get more understeer and your braking distances are extended but you can still make the car slide easily.
This game doesn't work as good as Shift with a gamepad though, the input lag is very noticeable and the steering aid is too intrusive and it's badly programmed, instead of a gradually steer the car on it's own to help you, it almost swerves from side to side when you are trying to be precise and not go from lock to lock with the analog sticks. Let's say you are trying to go around turn 1 on Imola (old one, that really open left-hander), you don't full lock to make it around the corner, so you only use 20% of the total travel of the stick, the game responds accurately and you the car reacts the way you want it too but then somehow the game thinks 20% isn't enough so the steering aid comes in and moves the steering wheel back and forth. Slight movements but big enough to even see them on the steering animation, so then you try to compensate and of course, the car becomes unbalanced and it feels weird, the car goes around the corner nicely but with unnecessary drama.
This is on Pro, F1 cars are pretty much undriveable because of this, other cars are too loose on the rear and other understeer way too much, the only cars that are somewhat enjoyable are the 360 Challenge, F40 and F50 GT, all of which are available in FM4 which renders this game useless for me. I don't really mind the slidey physics but the steering aid ruins it completely, it could've been much better if we were able to turn aids off individually.
Insidesimracing's review sums it up pretty well.