Formula E Audi driver Daniel Abt has been disqualified from an esports race and fined $10896 for using a ringer in his place, according to Reuters. Rivals became suspicious after he qualified in second place and went on to take third in the Formula E Race at Home Challenge, despite never having finished higher than 15th before. It turned out that professional e-sim racer Lorenz Hoerzing was at the wheel.
Suspicions were raised about whether or not Abt was actually the driver behind the wheel for Saturday’s Formula E Race at Home Challenge, with his competition being the first to raise the red flags. Fox Sports reported that two other racers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorn, echoed each other’s concerns about Abt when his performance in the Challenge appeared markedly different from previous results.
BERLIN! We’ll be racing at Tempelhof for Round 5 of the ABB Formula E #RaceAtHome Challenge in support of @UNICEF tomorrow ??? pic.twitter.com/GyJ7945PjR
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) May 22, 2020
The esports racing driver owned up to the cheating and responded by releasing a statement reported by The Race as follows:
“I would like to apologise to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday. I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I’m 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.”
Formula E reportedly checked IP addresses and figured out that Abt couldn’t have been driving. Rather, 18-year-old pro gamer Lorenz Hoerzing, who competes in the parallel FE Challenge series, had taken his place. Hoerzing has now been banned from the Race Challenge series and stripped of his sixth place finish in the companion FE Challenge race.