I agree with you about the cockpit view lacking in quality. IMO the best cockpit has been PGR's cockpit it had a lot more effects going on also did anyone notice that the driver doesn't have a gear shifting animation it makes me believe this demo is more like an early build, that or Turn 10 just forgot to add it.
I read in an interview with a Turn 10 dev that they didn't have time to make shifting animations for whole game IIRC.