FPAS will give you the best climb rate to altitude for your flight plan. Flight plan will dictate the speed on each leg or fly leads wing.
If you are doing join up after T/O then it would be pre-briefed for location (ie WP 1, 30 deg L wheel), altitude (5000') and speed (350 kts). After join up, fly leads wing.
Just how we do it (none of us are even remotely Navy pilots) gets us going though.
If you want real F-18 pilot feedback go here. https://discord.gg/td9qeqg Ask for Lex