Daniel Abt: Audi suspends star after 18-year-old gamer raced under Formula E driver’s name in esports event

(CNN)Formula E driver Daniel Abt has been suspended by his Audi team for using a professional esports gamer to compete for him.

Abt had been taking part in the ‘Race at Home Challenge’ which raised funds for the UNICEF coronavirus relief fund.After being found not to have driven his car himself in the qualifying and fifth race of the series on Saturday, May 23, Abt apologized and was disqualified from the race as well as being fined 10,000 euros ($10,956).

Audi has now suspended the driver “with immediate effect.””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,” Audi said in a statement.Read MoreREAD: Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will leave Ferrari at the end of the season

Abt celebrates his third place after the ePrix in Paris, France in 2019.Suspicions were initially aroused about Abt’s driving after the 27-year-old German qualified in second place and finished third in the actual race having not scored a point in the first four rounds of the series.

Good bye Twitch, good bye streams…
Im out. See you never

— Antonio Felix da Costa (@afelixdacosta) May 26, 2020 “Really not happy here because that was not Daniel driving the car himself, and he messed up everything. That was ridiculous,” said former F1 driver Stoffel Vandoornen on his Twitch stream. “I’m questioning if it was really Daniel in the car.””Please ask Daniel Abt to put his Zoom on next time he’s driving, because like Stoffel said, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in,” two-time FE champion Jean-Eric Vergne said.Following an investigation by Formula E on Sunday, which included IP address verification, it was concluded that Abt could not have been behind the wheel.The gamer who replaced Abt is widely reported to be 18-year-old Lorenz Hoerzing, who competes in the FE Challenge series, a parallel championship for esport drivers. CNN has reached out to Hoerzing via his Allied esports team for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

After all this a game that should be taken seriously, but it’s a GAME. Then what about all the drivers crashing on purpose, that would probably get their licence removed if that was reality? Been out of almost all races for unsportsman behaviours and drivers using me as brakes..

— Jean-Eric Vergne (@JeanEricVergne) May 26, 2020 Abt released an apology shortly afterwards in which he accepted his disqualification”I would like to apologize to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday,” said Abt, who has promised to provide a further update on the story later on Tuesday.

Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videos”I did not take it as seriously as I should have. I am aware that my offence has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention.”

Source: edition.cnn.com