Daniel Abt finished third in the fifth round of the Formula E’s sim racing series that commenced on Saturday but was disqualified on the basis of letting a professional esports racer to control his car in the virtual race. This race was organised in partnership with Motorsport Games to raise funds for the coronavirus relief package managed by UNICEF. The incident of Daniel not driving the car came into light when Stoffel Vandoorne accused him of not driving in the race.
Stoffel Vandoorne on his Twitch stream said that “Really not happy here because that was not Daniel driving the car himself, and he messed up everything. That was ridiculous,”
Formula E also released a statement on Sunday that confirmed Abt had been disqualified from the race due to “sporting misconduct.” Abt failed to score a single point in the first four rounds of the season, and his initial maiden virtual podium marked his first points of the season.
After the incident was reported, Daniel Abt lost all his points and was forced to make a compulsory donation of €10,000 (which is roughly Rs 8.27 lakh) to any charity of his choice. Daniel after the decision apologised for his actions and admitted that he was not taking the series so seriously.
Daniel Abt also commented that “I would like to apologise to Formula E, all of my fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday, I did not take it as seriously as I should have. I am especially sorry about this because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organisation. I am aware that my offence has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention. Of course, I accept my disqualification from the race.”
Following the disqualification of Daniel Abt, Sim racer Lorenz Hoerzing who is driving for team Audi in the parallel Challenge series for esports drivers has also been banned fromentering any future Challenge rounds. Daniel Abt’s disqualification also resulted in pushing team Audi to the bottom of the points table of Race at Home Challenge with zero points.