Opinion: Who Will Replace Abt at Audi?

After the Berlin Race at Home ePrix, Daniel Abt was found to have had sim racer Lorenz Hoerzing race for him, but under Abt’s name, for a YouTube stunt he had planned to document. However, Formula E and Audi didn’t take it so lightly.

Abt was disqualified from the event and fined €10,000 to pay to a charity of his choice, then dropped from the Audi organisation all together, losing his Formula E drive and no doubt damaging the strong ties that the Abt family and Audi have.

Abt was one of only 4 drivers to have contested every single FIA Formula E race since the series’ conception in 2014 at Beijing, along with teammate Lucas di Grassi, Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird and Mahindra’s Jerome d’Ambrosio.

This whole fiasco has opened up one of the hottest seats in Formula E, both for Season 7 onwards and potentially the rest of the 2019/20 season if it gets completed. Let’s take a look at the potential drivers, both inside and outside of Formula E, who could take that 2nd Audi seat alongside the 2016/17 champion Di Grassi.

Robin Frijns:

Outside of the factory Audi FE program, Dutchman Frijns is the most experience Audi-contracted driver in Formula E. Currently driving for Audi customer team Envision Virgin Racing, Frijns has 2 FE wins and 5 podiums to his name, with 4 of those podiums and both wins coming in the 2018/19 season, where he finished a career best 4th in the championship. While being the most experienced of the Audi drivers available, Frijns has very strong ties with both the Virgin team and teammate Sam Bird, so it may prove difficult to prise him away from the Envision Virgin team.

Nico Müller:

He may only have 4 Formula E starts to his name from this season with back markers GEOX Dragon, but Müller is one of the drivers most likely to be getting the 2nd Audi FE drive. He has endured a tough rookie season in Formula E this year, with 2 DNF’s and 1 DNS plaguing his chances of getting points on the board. A better representation of the Swiss’ ability is seen in DTM, with 2019 being his breakthrough season: 3 wins and 11 podiums (including 6 straight podiums) took him to a career best 2nd in the 2019 DTM season, with another win and 7 podiums coming between 2014 and 2018.

Pascal Wehrlein:

Relatively young and German – 2 things that makes Wehrlein a perfect candidate for a factory Audi FE drive. Wehrlein’s pace has never been doubted, losing a win in Mexico on the line and scoring a podium at his 2nd Formula E race, and scoring a total of 6 Formula 1 World Championship points for back markers Manor and Sauber in 2016 and 2017 respectively. What with the German recently announcing his immediate departure from the Mahindra, it looks almost like a perfect opportunity for Wehrlein, however the only issue is that he is not currently an Audi contracted driver, and there are strong rumours that he will move over to rival German manufacturer Porsche, both in Formula E and in endurance racing, so the chances of him signing for Audi looks very low.

René Rast:

He may be 33, but Rast is undoubtedly at the top of is game. 3 full seasons in DTM saw him finish 1st, 2nd, 1st from 2017-2019, with 17 wins and 26 podiums from 58 starts, and 6 wins in a row at the end of the 2018 season (and that was the season he didn’t win!). Rast does have some Formula E experience, with 1 race start for the now defunct Team Aguri team at the 2016 Berlin ePrix, where he outqualified teammate Ma Qinghua by half a second, but unfortunately wasn’t classified in the race after finishing 6 laps down. Rast is currently most likely to get the Audi drive, with a test lined up at the Lausitzring in July as the manufacturer evaluate who will replace Abt.

Loïc Duval:

At 37, Frenchman Duval is the oldest driver on this list, however with age comes experience, and Duval is certainly a driver with a lot of experience in motorsport. He saw 2 and a half seasons in Formula E with Dragon between Seasons 1 and 3, hailing 2 podiums in Formula E’s first season. 2019 saw his best season in DTM to date, but Duval’s best results in recent years is seen in endurance racing, finishing 3rd in class at the 2019 and 2016 Le Mans 24hrs, finishing 2nd overall in WEC in 2016, and winning both Le Mans and WEC in 2013. Duval has also had a successful Japanese career in the past, with championship titles in Formula Nippon (now Super Formula) in 2009 and finishing now lower than 6th between 2006 and 2014, and Super GT in 2010.

Allan McNish:

Wildcard entry is Audi FE Team Principle Allan McNish. At 50 years old, and having not raced competitively since 2013, McNish isn’t realistically going to be driving for the team he has managed the past few seasons, however he does have plenty of racing experience, winning Le Mans and WEC in 2013 with Audi and racing for Toyota in the 2002 F1 season.