Esports: Abt Reveals Berlin Replacement stunt was all for a “Good Show”

Have you ever been stuck on a video game level and the only way to complete it was by getting a friend, parent or partner to do it for you? Well Audi Formula E driver Daniel Abt tried that in last week’s Berlin Virtual ePrix.

The German driver was been disqualified from the latest results, stripped of his points tally, fined €10,000 and was eventually suspended by Audi for the foreseeable future. Though, in a tearful video on his YouTube channel, Abt explained the stunt, in which he also pretended to drive, was never meant to be a secret forever and was done for the entertainment of the fans, in the hope of a video reveal at a later point..

Formula E have been running their FE Race at Home Challenge in partnership with UNICEF over the past four weeks, and the challenge has seen a largely full grid of current Formula E drivers compete across the 2020 calendar.

Suspicions arose from Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne and TECHEETAH driver Jean-Eric Vergne after the end of the ePrix as Abt, who had struggled to get to grips with the simulator in previous rounds with no points finishes, suddenly found a significant boost of pace and qualified his Audi in 2nd and claimed 3rd in the race behind Vandoorne and winner Oliver Rowland.

Mercedes-Benz Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne commented after the race

“Really not happy here because that was not Daniel driving,” the Belgian said on his Twitch stream after the chequered flag. “He messed up everything. That was ridiculous, really ridiculous.”

It turned out that after struggling to find some form in previous rounds that Abt had employed the talents of 18-year old German sim-racer Lorenz Hoerzing who had been competing in the FE Challenge series with a number of gamers and influencers with the season winner getting the chance to drive a Formula E car at a race weekend in the future.

Abt had hinted at his intentions in a WhatsApp group after the race which might have led to Vandoorne’s post-race statement, as Hoerzing (under Abt’s name) had finished third behind the Belgian, after a race-long battle between them had allowed Oliver Rowland to take victory. Abt would not attend the post race interviews stating;

“I did not want to do this interview because I thought it’d be wrong.”

Formula E released a statement on Sunday confirming at Abt had been disqualified from the results due to ‘sporting misconduct’ and would be fined €10,000 and asked to donate the fine to a charity of his choice. The charity he donated to was the Allgäuer Werkstätten, championing disabled people.

Abt accepted the ruling and commented on his virtual transgression. Shortly after the media caught wind of the story.

“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.

He would go on to address his fans directly in a video on his YouTube channel, where he spoke of how the early rounds of the season had been full of bugs, errors and crashing, citing the mass pile-up he was involved in during the Monaco race.

“Honestly, if you look at it from the outside, I believe it was not what makes a real Formula E race, a professional event. Nevertheless, we participated in it, weekend after weekend, our goal was to entertain the fans at home.”

He went on to mention his twitch channel and how the main purpose was to have fun with the fans. Noting that his first got more views than the official FIA FE stream, reporting a lot of fans were watching him for the interaction not the result.

“Personally, it was not at all important to me right away from the start… but the reason was to entertain people. I think it became clear reletively quickly there were drivers taking it seriously, who put a lot of time into the simulator themselves. And there were drivers, I was one of them, who focused on the stream.”

Continuing to talk about his twitch stream of the previous races he played a clip in which he was openly talking to SIM racers about planning on having one of them replace him. While never addressing Hoerzing by name, he made it clear he did not hide the Austrian IP Address and did not offer him any money.

Equally sim-racer Hoerzing has been banned from attending any further events as part of the Formula E Challenge.

Vandoorne’s comments would prompt an investigation from FE, who quickly found out the truth and suggested the €10,000 fine, which Abt immediately accepted. Though Abt was disappointed with how the media had protrayed him as a cheater.

“This topic has become so extreme in the media, being talked about from A-Z, it has real world consequences for me, because today I was informed in a conversation with Audi, that our way will split from now on. We won’t be racing together in Formula E and the cooperation has ended.”

The Formula E Challenge at Home Series has been a well attended and received Esports replacement during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but much like the IndyCar Challenge Indy 500 final lap and Kyle Larson’s racial slur in NASCAR’s iracing outing there have been controversial endings to the races as drivers are trusted to race and stream in a virtual world.