Abt to make immediate return to Formula E after Audi exit

Formula E

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Daniel Abt, who was fired from Audi’s Formula E team after being caught cheating in a simrace, will return to the series next month without having missed a round.

The 27-year-old will join NIO for the final six races of the 2019-20 season, all of which will take place on home ground for the German driver at Berlin’s Templehof airport circuit. He is to replace Chinese racer Ma Qinghua, who is unable to travel to Europe to compete in the races due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“I take full responsibility for what happened in the Race at Home Challenge – it was a mistake,” said Abt, who arranged for a professional simracer to drive his car during the event in May. “I have no hard feelings towards anyone, and now is the time for me to look forward and get back to what I love most – racing.”

Abt will partner Oliver Turvey at the team, which is last in the championship standings and yet to score a point this year.

Abt said he is “very grateful for the opportunity, and the trust” the team is placing in him. “The chance to race the final six races of the season – my home races – and continue my record of competing in every round to-date in Formula E is very exciting.”

“I just want to do the best I can for the team and help us have a good finish to the season,” he added.

Abt’s place at Audi has been taken by Rene Rast.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “Abt to make immediate return to Formula E after Audi exit”

  1. RocketTankski
    1st July 2020, 12:29

    Some people say that he loves racing so much that he’s produced clones of himself in order to compete in several races simultaneously.. All we know is that he’s not called the Stig.

  2. Jose Lopes da Silva
    1st July 2020, 13:01

    There was an over-reaction in the West about something. The Chinese, as they don’t care about internal struggles elsewhere and don’t feel threatened by the involved person’s “reputation”, take care of it.

    O tempora. O mores.

  3. This is pathetic… this fool shuold be banned from racing forever

    1. Because he didn’t want to play a game, felt forced to do so, and cheating his way out of it? To be deprived of his right to work and earn for himself and his family, doing what he’s good at? Have you ever cheated in a game, mister Hellothere? If you did, please quit your job/studies/whatever and shame yourself publicly. I’m an atheist, but damn, I do love that line about “casting a stone”, Jesus had it spot on there.

      1. It wasn’t a game, it was to raise funds against the covid and the dude crapped all over that. oh and he is not good at his work also, his team mate swept the floor with him.

        1. Whatever it was for, it was playing a game and he was pushed into it. His choice wasn’t all that wise or kind, I’m not defending what he’s done, but he lost his real life job over it. As for as how good or not he is, at that level, they are all good. It’s funny when they say for some tennis player, as an example, that he’s bad because he’s 58th in the world or something. Imagine if you or me were that good at what we do. This guy competes in one of the top racing series in the world at the moment, and surely isn’t amongst the worst there. That makes him at least good racing driver in my book. Yeah, there are maybe 10-15 or 50 better racing drivers in the world. How many are below his level? If I raced against him I’m sure I’d be humiliated, thus I have no right to make fun of his driving skills.

          1. Unfortunately and regardless of his reasons he cheated while representing the Audi brand and their sponsors and they obviously took a very dim view of his actions.
            Whether they should have sacked him or imposed some other form of punishment is obviously debatable and depends on your point of view, but how many of us have made mistakes and been given a second chance.

            I completely agree with your comment about his skills as a driver, he is certainly way more talented than I am and Abt and his fellow competitors would certainly humiliate me if I ever got behind the wheel, that is one of the reasons that I try never to criticise drivers, here or in any other racing forum.

    2. tony mansell
      2nd July 2020, 9:48

      I’ve been cutting corners on Real Racing 3 as well. I have confessed but I cannot hide the shame.

      Now, i’m off to the Gulags to GET SOME PERSPECTIVE

      1. Jose Lopes da Silva
        2nd July 2020, 10:24

        “Unfortunately and regardless of his reasons he cheated while representing the Audi brand and their sponsors and they obviously took a very dim view of his actions.
        Whether they should have sacked him or imposed some other form of punishment is obviously debatable and depends on your point of view, but how many of us have made mistakes and been given a second chance.”

        At least Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher did get a second chance. (Alain Prost did not recognise it, but Suzuka 89 was not right, just like Austria 16 wasn’t)
        And I consider both of them not only as artists of the sport but also as examples at a personal level, regarding the levels of professionalism and commitment they applied to their profession. But I would not take the cheating, though.
        People are not black and white and we should all get some perspective. More tolerance is needed. We’re getting too much intolerance from all sides lately.

  4. Daniel Abt, who was fired from Audi’s Formula E team after being caught Joking in a simrace, will return to the series next month without having missed a round.

    Fixed it for you :D

    1. pastaman (@)
      1st July 2020, 23:42

      Seems to be a common excuse these days after getting caught doing/saying something bad. “Oh I was just joking”.

      Uh huh. Sure.

  5. After reading the headline I thought that Audi exited the sport, which prompted the return of Abt.

  6. Not sure I have the logic behind all this but I think it goes something like this:

    Daniel Abt is caught cheating (whilst representing his pay masters) and admits to it….
    Audi tells Daddy Abt (Owner of Abt Sportline who run Audi’s Formula E efforts) to sack his son… (we can all take a guess at how that conversation went…)
    Daniel Abt doesn’t like this and stamps his feet… complains to Daddy that it’s not fair and that Audi are picking on him.. etc etc
    Daddy Abt then has a choice.. Does he A) Tell his son that Actions have consequences, so grow up and stop acting like a spoilt brat who’s had his toys taken away because he can’t play nicely with others or b) get his check book out and buy another ride for his precious special little boy…

    Sucks to have a rich Daddy..not!

  7. The guy made a very stupid mistake, nothing more, it was an ill attempt at humour that backfired spectacularly. He’s apologised so lets not torture the guy, if nothing else it sets a precedent for others and it’s not likely anyone else would do the same in the future.

    There’s much worse things in the world right now and always will be. I think the biggest question is why him? There must be better drivers avaliable, I’m guessing his Formula E experience and a bit of money are the reasons.

    1. Josh (@canadianjosh)
      1st July 2020, 17:33

      There’s gotta be a couple black drivers out there, would be a good time to get one in a seat as sponsors would be drooling over that scenario, or a woman.

    2. On the other hand @bernasaurus, since the team doesn’t have their regular driver Ma Qinghua available, and need a replacement right away, it’s not a bad move to strap Abt in. He is a decent pair of hands, even if not a highlight, his experience might help the team actually push the car a bit and get some results in Berlin.

      I am sure that Abt also would not have been very expensive, since he suddenly found himself out of a drive. Maybe he even brings some smallchange with him from the family!

  8. for good

  9. “Hmm, due to Covid rules Ma won’t be able to race for NIO in the upcoming German, German, German, German, German and German ePrixs. We’ll need somebody else.”

    “Be careful – it’d be a be of an embarrassment if the new guy was immediately much quicker and made it obvious that Ma is only in the team because the title sponsor requires it.”

    “Well, Daniel Abt is available and has been consistently slower than his team-mate for six seasons….”
    “Perfect!”

    1. Jose Lopes da Silva
      2nd July 2020, 10:29

      This is the best comment here.

  10. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    1st July 2020, 17:06

    NIO confuse me, like the white and cyan car looks beautiful but why is it so slow? Why are they always last, if the cars are generally the same? Is it drivers or is the team just bad?

    1. @rocketpanda FE cars surely utilize the same kind of chassis, brakes, tyres, but their powertrain is different, unique, this is basically the component that makes the teams “constructors.” And meanwhile NIO can occasionally come up with standout qualifying performances due to their quite alright one-lap speed, during the race they are steadily going down the order as they lack efficiency. Oli Turvey is a top tier driver, the lack of results is not down to him. And we shouldn’t forget that NIO is the successor of Team China, the team of season one driver’s champion Nelson Piquet, with some of the technical and engineer staff retained, so they know how to squeeze out performance of a car, but unfortunately its powertrain doesn’t seem to offer too much of it this season.

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