The world of virtual racing in the COVID-19 era continues to be a strange and interesting one. Formula E driver Daniel Abt was suspended by the Audi Sport racing team for admitting that he was not actually driving when he finished third in the ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge.

The Race reported that some of the other drivers in the race had doubts about Abt's performance throughout the race. During the race, his face was always hidden by his equipment, but his performance was one of the best of the season: his best qualifying position was 9th (he qualified 2nd in this race) and his best finish was 15th. He has also been forced to retire in the last three races due to the "race royal" system, where the driver who finishes last is forced to retire.

Mercedes EQ driver Stoffel Vandoor said on Twitch after the race, "I'm really unhappy here because it wasn't Daniel driving," flatly accusing Abt of having someone else driving instead of him. Vandoor also called Abt's cell phone, but there was no answer.

When organizers confirmed that Abt was not actually at the race, he admitted that he had been substituted by Lorenz Herzing, an eSports sim racer for Allied Racing. As a result, Abt was disqualified from the race and ordered to donate 10,000 euros to charity. Meanwhile, Herzig was banned from the Race Challenge series altogether and stripped of his sixth-place finish in the recent Formula E Challenge grid race.

"I want to apologize to Formula E, all the fans, the team, and my fellow drivers for calling for outside help during Saturday's race. I did not take it more seriously than I should have. I am especially sorry about this because I know how much work the Formula E organization has put into this project," Abt said in a statement.

"I am aware that my attack has a bad aftertaste, but it was never malicious. Of course, I accept the disqualification. In addition, I will donate 10,000 euros to a charitable project."

Abt further emphasized that point in an apology video posted on YouTube, stressing that these races are not really races, but fundraisers for charity to give fans something to look at. Some drivers take it seriously, he said, while others focus more on putting on a good show. Abt is apparently one of the latter drivers, saying in the video that "it was all for fun."

"I was practicing for this Race at Home Challenge on the Twitch stream and communicating with them through the online program. We discussed sim racing, drove together, and had fun," said Abt. (On this stream, on this day, we had a conversation and the idea came up that a sim racer would basically drive for me and use the chance to drive against them, showing other real drivers his abilities. I wanted to document that and create an interesting story for the fans."

"It was not my intention to have other drivers drive for me, get results, and then keep it quiet later and just try to make me look good. This point, this result has nothing to do with me personally. It doesn't affect me in any way. I don't get paid for it. Nothing like that. Simracer [Herzing] didn't receive any money from me either."

Not taking these online exchange races seriously seems to be some sort of ongoing theme: at the April eNascar online race, Bubba Wallace quit in a fit of rage, Jimmy Johnson tried to fire the NPC, Erik Jones tried to get a new shenanigans, such as revealing that a PC was needed.

Unfortunately for Abt, the racing team took the driver's actions very seriously. As a result of his actions, Audi Sport announced over the weekend that it had severed ties with the driver.

Update: This post originally stated that Lorenz Herzing was a member of Allied Esports. He is actually a member of Allied Racing eSports and is not affiliated with Allied Esports.