Ideas for player market and finances
PLAYER MARKET:
The solution should look like something GPRO (Formula One manager game) uses. First of all, the player market should be filled with players. Not only with players people put up for bidding, but random unemployed players to choose from. A lot of them.
Another thing is training. In GPRO, even though you can swap drivers mid-season, it's more rewarding to train the driver instead of buying a better one. Why? Because in certain leagues, the driver's overall rating you can sign with is limited. Once you signed him, you can train him and increase the ratings. After only 1-2 races and training sessions, the driver will be better than anyone you can sign with, so it only makes sense to stick to him and train him.
FINANCES:
Another reason it's impossible to get a player is because of money stackers. This is why sponsor income was decreased, but they still have that insane amount of money, plus they have all the sponsor slots and already filled those up. Nothing changed, they can still outbid smaller/newer players.
So another notable GPRO feature: first of all, money and sponsors resets after each season. Also, sponsor stacking shouldn't be a thing. In GPRO, there are 5 slots, but you have to negotiate with sponsors. Negotiation takes time. You can negotiate with multiple sponsors at once, but it'll slow both negotiations down a lot.
And on top of all this, sponsor income is still insanely high. It's so high, that giving players infinite amount of money wouldn't make a difference. It's basically impossible to go bankrupt. I think the economy should give a challenge. It'd make the game more enjoyable and get rid of unhealthy money stacking. In GPRO (once again), you can stack money, but you'll fall behind in car development. You can rush car development, but you'll fall behind in money. There needs to be a balance, either with decreased income, or increase spendings.
I hope that with or without my ideas the game will outgrow these problems. Keep up the good work!