The way I understood the "dogfight" scene in Green Lantern was that Ferris wanted to "put on a show" in order to get a contract with the military. Carl decided to use his two best pilots to then, basically lose against the drones on purpose? If this is the case, I would assume Carol (specifically), and Hal would both be aware that they are to lose, and Hal being Hal (egocentric, etc) decides to demolish the drones. I assume that he does this in order to show off, or to show that the drones' "ceilings" need to be raised.
So, why does Carol warn him ahead of time that the drones are impossible to beat, and that she has been "smoked" by them all week? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have her say, "Look, put on a good show. Make it look believable." (Or something along those lines) instead, they have her give Hal this warning as if he's actually supposed to try and destroy them.