Daniel Abt: My Statement About The Formula E Scandal

words: Bill, photo: Audi Sport, video: Daniel Abt

News came out this week that Daniel Abt was dropped by Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler for using a professional e-sport driver in his place during a Formula E Race at Home Challenge. On Tuesday, he released a statement on his YouTube channel explaining his side of the story.

Basically, he said he and some other drivers were doing e-racing for the fans and raising money for UNICEF. He said the 1st few races were filled with crashes and everyone was just driving all over the place.

Daniel states that he was just having fun and doing it for the entertainment of fans. Other drivers, though, were taking it seriously. Daniel loves Formula E and brings in a lot of fans through his social media channels. During a practice, he and some Sim racers were joking around on a live Twitch stream and thought it would be funny if one of those drivers raced in his place. He wanted to document it and make a humorous story for the fans.

As we know, that backfired. Daniel claims he never intended for the Sim racer (Lorenz Hoerzing, a pro gamer who races in the FE Challenge series) to place and keep quiet about it. The points didn’t count, he doesn’t make any money from the races, and Lorenz wouldn’t receive money from him. It was just supposed to be a social media joke. After all, it was discussed live during a Twitch stream.

But he’s not making excuses; he truly is sorry for a joke that went too far. I believe him…this is a 15 min long video and in this day and age of a one paragraph apology, Daniel pours his soul out. You can watch the video below (it’s in German but there are English subtitles) and make your own decision.