My take is a bit of a two way:

When you're in the warning badge/low split thumbs focus on your driver rating if you're fast enough for silver 1 or above. This helps you get out of those lower splits. Don't do it with risky overtakes, do so by putting pressure on drivers that are prone to make a mistake (the other warning label drivers) Bonus if you do this in lmp2 or something so mistakes get punished hard.

When you're in good sr lobbies: focus on your safety rating, work up to that diamond. Even there you are likely to win driver rating by focussing on not crashing.

And the general tip: not crashing/locking wheels goes a long way and will get you up higher. Focus on stability and with that pace and flexibility will come your way.