I was going to try online yesterday then realized I needed to sign up for online PlayStation action. From what I had already read, I couldn’t bring myself to pay for it based on fear of what you just described.
Going to get GTS soon and I’ll sign up for online then as there seems to be a rating system that promotes ethical racing. When I get around to that, I’ll try online F1 too. Maybe F1 2019 will have improvements in this respect??