personally i use the analog stick for all things steering and pitch but that's mainly because d-pad gives me monstrous blisters. i find the d-pad a lot more consistent when pulling of BRs (or sometimes failing miserably), which is a bit annoying. pitching around the tracks helps a lot i find. i'll wager a lot of faster people around here will back me up on that. I also changed airbrakes to L1 and R1 which i find much easier and i get cramp less often.
there's my two cents.