Yesterday, I reported that Audi driver Daniel Abt had been suspended from his Formula E team, after getting another person to race for him in a charity esports occasion. Well, now he’s been straight up fired by Audi due to the incident. Last night time, he posted a 14-minute video explaining the scenario. Abt stated that the explanation he received professional sim racer, Lorenz Hoerzing, to drive for him was as a result of they wished to “create a funny story for the fans.”
“We thought about how to make it happen, how to document it, and how to unwind it in a video afterwards,” he says. “It was never my intention to let another driver drive for me, to get a result and keep quiet about it later on.”
This might very effectively have been the case, nevertheless it exhibits a normal disrespect for the esport, which is making an attempt to behave like the actual factor whereas we’re all in lockdown. It additionally doesn’t assist that he provides off an actual ‘it’s only a video game’ vibe via the primary half of his assertion, suggesting he isn’t actually that sorry for what he’s executed.
(Note that his video is in German, so that you’ll must pop on these subtitles if that language isn’t in your repertoire.)
The first couple of minutes is simply him explaining what the Race At Home Challenge is. For people who don’t know, it’s a collection of races in rFactor 2 organised by Formula E for real-life racing drivers and esports drivers alike to compete, bringing races to followers the place they in any other case wouldn’t be occurring because of the pandemic. They stream the races most weekends, and elevating cash for Unicef whereas they’re at it.
“When looking back, we did not think enough about the seriousness and the consequences of the situation,” he says. “We made a huge mistake. I accept it and I will carry all the consequences for what I have done.”
And these penalties haven’t been mild for Abt, who was disqualified from the race, suggested to pay €10,000 (about £9000) to a charity of his alternative, and finally fired by Audi.
“Today I was informed by Audi that our ways will split from now on. We won’t be racing together in Formula E anymore,” he continues.
“It was extremely important to me to take the chance here and now to tell you how it was and what happened, and to simultaneously apologize to my family, to my friends, to Audi, to my partners to Formula E, to Unicef, and of course to all fans who have supported me over the years.”
