Yet Another Race Car Driver Loses Job Over Online Racing Games

We’re not sure what it is about at-home racing simulators but it seems like pro drivers using them can’t help but get in trouble. First, it was NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace losing a sponsor over rage quitting. Then, we saw one of NASCAR’s biggest stars in Kyle Larson dropping the N-bomb and being suspended indefinitely. This time, yet another driver has lost their seat over an incident involving a racing simulator.

For this story, we learn about German Formula E driver, Daniel Abt. In a controversial move, Abt got caught up in a scandal that would cause Audi to drop him from their racing team. Audi has had a history of forgiving mistakes but this time, they say that he “made a conscious decision to go against the rules.”

Apparently, for the sake of entertainment, Abt would get a professional gamer to compete in his place in the “Race at Home Challenge.” As you might’ve guessed, this is a competition performed on a simulator involving racers from Formula E.

In the statement from Abt, as reported by ESPN, he tells us “Our goal was to entertain you, the fans at home,” he continues, “We emphasized from the beginning that for us and for me it is not about results in this online series. Personally, it was not at all important to me right from the start, as it was not at all the reason why I did it.”

Long story short, we’re led to believe that he was planning to use the move as some sort of content for his YouTube channel with over 300,000 subscribers.

However, Audi was having none of it. In their statement, they said “We stand by our culture of tolerating mistakes. However, the incidents that took place during the “Race at Home Challenge” sim racing series were not a mistake, but a conscious decision to go against the rules. That is what makes the big difference for us. Therefore, unfortunately, we had no other alternative than suspending Daniel Abt.”