I'm having most problems with the time trials, some are damn hard (even bronze). Tournaments are easy, most races too. Tip for speed lap: use the (first) speed boost just before the finish, so you can use two in one lap.
Finally got past Vertigo.
Using the Icaras as well to get some more speed. I guess the Feisar is just too slow for some stuff.
Be sure to set sensitivity for acceleration to 10% otherwise the acceleration button will pressure sensitive and you always want max speed. This seems to be a common mistake.
I use [] for acceleration and () for firing and R1 for absorbing. This way i dont have to move any fingers when firing/absorbing so I dont fuck up my race line. I steer with the d-pad and have airbrakes on L2/R2.
Getting the perfect raceline on a map (taking corners tighter, travelling in a straighter lince, etc) can almost always be bettered even if you think you've made a perfect lap. On Anulpha Pass I did a perfect lap with venom in 36 seconds which I thought would be almost impossible to get better. After doing 99 laps in racebox speedlap mode I'm now down to 31.xx seconds, and 2 seconds or so of that was just by taking corners better, the rest was taking the boost at a new place and doing 3 barrels rolls.
Most tracks have places where you can barrel roll which will easily shave of up to a second of the lap times, especially if you manage to do a barrel roll after using turbo.
I need love