F-Ultimate was better before the latest changes.

I'm not particularly fond of the changes made to the F-Ultimate in 8.3
Before the engine was torquey enough that i could get out of Interlagos "bico de pato" or the Donnington and Canada hairpins, in 3rd pretty smoothly, now it feels letargic in 3rd and i have to reach for 2nd and the car ends up more "bitey" instead of less which reading the notes seemed to be the intention.

Now it's quite possible that this change made the game more realistic (i think they take the Canada hairpin in 2nd, bico de pato might be 3rd however), but take these thoughts into consideration.

 

something could have changed in the default gearbox settings.
You can create and save your own setup in ADVANCED SETUP -> DRIVETRAIN per track to your needs.