The 27-year-old German motorsport professional Daniel Abt finished third in a virtual Formula E race. The problem: He didn’t drive himself, but hired a gamer to compete for him. This was discovered.
This is the situation: Formula E is a racing series for cars with electric motors. Normally, they race on city circuits. However, due to the current situation with the novel coronavirus, the actual races on-site have been suspended, and a virtual racing series “Race at Home” is being held instead.
The fifth race of this series took place on the virtual course of Berlin-Tempelhof.
The German driver Daniel Abt achieved third place on the course – actually a great performance. Abt is not only a racing driver but also runs YouTube channels and presents himself on Instagram as someone who also enjoys racing from home.
Gamer hid head during race behind microphone arm
This is the problem: As was revealed later, Daniel Abt was not at home driving his virtual race car; it was taken over by a gamer for him, the Austrian e-sports professional Lorenz Hörzing.
The second-place finisher of the race, Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, expressed doubts after the race about whether Daniel Abt really drove himself:
- Abt had turned off the video camera during an interview
- furthermore, the driver hid his face during the race behind a microphone arm – that was probably too conspicuous and looked somewhat ridiculous
This is the consequence: Daniel Abt was disqualified, lost all his points from the series, and was forced to donate nearly €10,000 to a charity organization.
Hörzing, the e-sports professional, was also disqualified in his class at the “Race at Home” challenge.
This is what the driver says: Abt apologizes for his act. He says he “didn’t take it as seriously as he should have.”
He is particularly sorry because a lot of work went into the project. Abt is aware that his violation now has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never done maliciously.
Audi fires Daniel Abt
Update 16:19: Audi published a statement on Tuesday afternoon. The statement says that integrity, transparency, and constant adherence to the rules are important for Audi, and this applies to all areas of the brand.
Therefore, they have decided to suspend Daniel Abt with immediate effect (via the-race).
Abt announced on Twitter that he would give a statement of his own at 6 PM.
Professional e-sports players like Hörzing are faster in virtual races than actual racing drivers. They cannot compete.
In fact, sim racing has been an official motorsport in Germany since 2018.
The title image comes from the Instagram account of Daniel Abt.
