spitboy when setting up your car keep everything symetrical untill you get better at the game try this for the ferrari
set front wheel camber to -.50 or -.25both sides
set rear to -.50 or -.25
set roll bars front and back to much higher than default..eg if front is 80 and rear 90 set them to 180 and 190
knock up the lbs in the springs too but keep it symetrical
set front toe in to .125 or more (to your own taste)
forget ride heights etc for now.
this will set your car up well for most tracks and wont be too twitchy so you can concentrate on the gearing
this is why you are so far behind, the gearing is much too long for most courses in the default and im guessing you like me knew nothing of how the ratio stuff works and are not consistant enough to read what your changes do right?

well heres a simple guideline
if you are on a fast course like watkins the only time you need the top gear is on the long straight just after the start so your top gear should be hitting rev limit as you finish this straight.this means that you can shorten all the gears a lot more to get better acceleration as top gear is hardly ever used on this track
my settings are
ramp 85/45
diff ratio 8/31
clutches 1
gears
1st 8.857:1
2nd 6.610:1
3rd 5.711:1
4th 5.351:1
5th 4.593:1
the higher the number the shorter that gear.
so my top gear is 4.593:1 which is very short but any more is wasted because you run out of road

if you look at my set up i have a fairly short 1st then into a longer 2nd then 3rd gear and 4th are very close to enable very hard acceleration. my 3rd gear is what i generally corner in(fast corners) and i have it quite short because i like to be revvy in corners so i can get out fast.
in your early days make sure you do all your braking before the corners and set gears so you accelerate fast.this way you are fast everywhere but in the corners and you can gradually increase speed in corners as you get better.having a fast accelerating car will help you keep with the pack even if you are slower in corners.I hope this helps but bear in mind ive only just started to challenge the front runners and my settings are far from perfect but what i have learned is get the car stable for most corners first then go very short with the gearing(high numbers) then if you find your hitting the limiter on long straights lower your top gear(smaller number) and space your other gears to accomodate the new setting.
try it out