It'll be interesting to see how different ships fair in time trials-- and if there is a split where the slower vs. faster speeds (or the open vs. technical tracks) favor one ship over another.

I mostly use AGS and Pirrhana at the moment, and there is a clear trade-off in performance on different tracks and at different speeds... FOR ME. But perhaps if I was a better pilot, the Pirrhana would win out even for more technical tracks and for the higher speed classes. I don't think that the game has been out long enough for this to be determined with certainty

The ships in general seem SO similar in performance that I will not be surprised if several of them are viable even for high level play (time trials or multiplayer). And that's probably a good thing!