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Audi Drops Formula E Driver Daniel Abt For Cheating in Virtual Race

A Formula E professional driver has lost its job with Audi Sports after he was caught using a stand-in driver for a virtual race that took place last weekend.
Audi drops Daniel Abt from Formula E team, he claims the cheating scandal was but a joke 4 photos
Photo: Twitter / Daniel Abt
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Daniel Abt has been with Audi since 2014, at the inception of Formula E. During Saturday’s Race at Home Challenge, the fifth series of the virtual race that came to replace the actual event, questions were raised about Abt’s performance. It was far better than anything he’d shown before during the e-sports event, so fellow drivers suspected him of getting a professional e-sports driver to race for him.

Their suspicions were confirmed at the end of the race, which “Abt” finished third. Abt had gotten Lorenz Hoerzing, a fellow Audi teammate and a professional Sim racer, to race in his place – and then went through the trouble of making it look as if he, Abt, was doing it.

Officials were able to have a look at the IP used for the race and determined Abt hadn’t taken part in it. Confronted, he confirmed he had cheated and, in the process, apologized profusely, saying something along the lines of not having taken the event seriously enough. The e-race was meant to raise funds for UNICEF, so Abt accepted the mandatory donation of 10,000 euro.

The apology and the donation were not enough, The Race reports. Shortly after he owned up to cheating, Abt was dropped by Audi for good. It’s not just that he’s not allowed to race in the Formula E virtual event until the end of the season: he won’t be driving for Audi in Formula E at all.

“Daniel Abt did not drive his car in qualifying and the race at the fifth event of the Race at Home Challenge on May 23 himself, but let a professional sim racer do so. He directly apologized for this on the following day and accepted the disqualification,” Audi says in a statement to the media outlet.

“Integrity, transparency and consistent compliance with applicable rules are top priorities for Audi – this applies to all activities the brand is involved in without exception. For this reason, Audi Sport has decided to suspend Daniel Abt with immediate effect,” the statement continues.

The term “suspension” actually means termination of Abt’s contract, The Race says, for failing to adhere to the strict compliance criteria. The contract should have run out this July, but was believed to be renewed automatically for another 12 months.

In a lengthy video statement (see below, with subtitles for English), Abt says it was never his intention to cheat to the top. The e-race is a game and has nothing in common with actual Formula E racing, so he wanted to trick the other drivers by having a Sim racer drive in his place and to document it all on video. He never got to that part because they were “caught” and the whole thing unraveled.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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