Daniel Johannes Abt (born 3 December 1992) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

former racing driver. He has competed in such series as the

German Formula Three Championship The German Formula Three Championship was the national Formula Three championship of Germany, and the former West Germany, from 1950 to 2002, then as Formel 3 until 2014. In 2003, the series had merged with the French Formula Three Championship to ...

, the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

, the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccle ...

, and won the 2009 ADAC Formel Masters championship. He competed in the first four rounds of the 2019–20 Formula E season with ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, however he was dismissed from the team after being found to be using a ringer driver in the sport's subsequent virtual races. He completed the remainder of the season at

Nio 333 FE Team The Nio 333 Racing is a motor racing team currently competing in the FIA Formula E Championship, an all-electric racing series. The team is owned and managed by Lisheng Sports and Gusto Engineering in China and Hong Kong respectively. The team, ...

replacing

Ma Qinghua Ma Qinghua () (born 25 December 1987 in Shanghai) is a Chinese racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup with Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. Ma became the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race when he w ...

. He is currently on a hiatus from competitive racing, having chosen to take up a broadcasting role with Sat.1 as part of their Formula E coverage.

Career

ADAC Formel Masters

Abt was born in

Kempten Kempten (, (Swabian German: )) is the largest Town#Germany, town of Allgäu, in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The population was about 68,000 in 2016. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later taken over by th ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. In 2008, Abt switched to formula racing and competed in the

ADAC Formel Masters ADAC Formel Masters was an ADAC sanctioned open wheel racing series based in Germany, held annually from 2008 to 2014. It was replacement of the local Formula BMW championship. The first season was in 2008 and is the main feeder series to the ATS F ...

for his father's team, Abt Sportsline. He started from the pole position four times and clinched a third and two second places as his best results. Finishing the season in eighth place of the standings he was defeated by his team-mate Markus Pommer, who finished fifth overall with one victory to his credit. In 2009, Abt contested his second season in the ADAC Formel Masters for Abt Sportsline and with eight race wins commandingly clinched the champion's title ahead of Klaus Bachler. He took seven pole positions and a total of ten podium results. With 224 points against 90 points he clearly prevailed in the internal duel against his team-mate René Binder.

Formula Three

After running in the

as a guest entrant for Performance Racing in 2009, he switched to the series in 2010 joining the championship-winning

Van Amersfoort Racing Van Amersfoort Racing is an auto racing team based in the Netherlands. In 2022 the team competes in the Formula 2 Championship, the Formula 3 Championship, the Formula Regional European Championship, Euroformula Open Championship, Italian F4 Cha ...

team. During the season Abt prevailed against his team-mates Stef Dusseldorp and Willi Steindl and had chances of winning the championship title up to the last race weekend. In the end, he had to admit defeat to Tom Dillmann with a score of 112 points against 120 points, and with two race wins and a total of ten podium places finished as the overall runner-up. After the season, he competed for

Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

at the prestigious

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

. Abt was leading the race ahead of his team-mates

Edoardo Mortara Edoardo "Edo" Mortara (born 12 January 1987) is a Swiss-Italian- French professional racing driver for Maserati MSG Racing. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, he holds triple nationality from all three countries. He is a former Formula Three Eurose ...

and

Laurens Vanthoor Laurens Vanthoor (; born 8 May 1991) is a Belgian professional racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He currently resides in Waiblingen outside of Stuttgart. ...

but lost control of his vehicle and retired after an accident. In 2011, Abt joined the

Formula 3 Euro Series The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...

grid for Signature, finishing the season in seventh place after taking four third places as his best results. In the team, he was defeated by

Marco Wittmann Marco Wittmann (born 24 November 1989) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He currently resides in Markt Erlbach. Wittmann has competed in such series as Formula Three Euroseries The Formula 3 Euro Series wa ...

and Vanthoor, who achieved second and sixth place. Ahead of Carlos Muñoz, who finished in position eight of the standings, Abt was the third-best driver of his team. In addition, Abt was entitled to points in the 2011

FIA Formula 3 International Trophy The FIA Formula 3 International Trophy was a FIA-sanctioned international formula series that ran in 2011 for Formula Three cars. The Trophy was the first international Formula Three series since the demise of the European Formula Three Champions ...

where he achieved fourth place. At the end of the year, he tested for Audi in a DTM car.

GP3 and GP2

After setting the fastest time on several occasions in GP3 tests for Lotus GP at the end of 2011, the racing team that had provided the champion and the runner-up the year before, the team gave him a cockpit for the 2012

season. On 19 December 2012 Abt got a contract to join

ART Grand Prix ART Grand Prix is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. In 2012, it competed in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series as Lotus GP to reflect sponsorship from British sports and racing car manufacturer Lotus. The ...

in the GP2 Series in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

together with

James Calado James John Calado (born 13 June 1989) is a British professional racing driver from England, currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He won the LMGTE Pro class of the 2017 FIA World ...

. Abt struggled as a rookie and finished the season in 22nd with only eleven points to his name, but remained in the championship for

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

by moving to the German

Hilmer Motorsport Hilmer Motorsport was a German racing team established in 2013 by Franz Hilmer. The team first raced in the GP2 Series, starting in 2013, replacing Ocean Racing Technology. Hilmer joined the GP3 Series in 2014 with support from Force India, rep ...

squad alongside fellow GP3 runner-up

Facu Regalia Facundo "Facu" Regalia (born 23 November 1991 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine racing driver. He competed in his first two Formula BMW seasons under a Spanish racing licence. Career Karting Regalia began karting in 2006 and raced primarily in S ...

Formula E (2014–2020)

On 13 February 2014 Abt was confirmed to also be racing in the inaugural

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who is ...

season with his family associated team Audi Sport ABT alongside Audi's

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Endura ...

driver

Lucas di Grassi Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competes in the FIA Formula E World Championship for Mahindra Racing. He became the FIA Formula E Champion in 2016–2017, achieved three overall podium ...

2014–15

Having driven to 3rd on the podium in the inaugural Formula E race, Abt was penalised for illegal modifications on his car resulting being pushed down to 10th position. Abt achieved one podium finish, pole position and fastest lap in the 2014–15 season with 32 points and 11th place in the championship. Abt failed to live up to expectations in his debut season having scored 101 less than teammate Lucas Di Grassi having lacked consistency.

2017–18

Abt won his first race in Formula E in the 2018 Mexico City ePrix, after 38 race starts.

2019–20

In May 2020, Abt was suspended by the Audi team after a professional gamer played under his name in an esports version of the Formula E series. The announcement of his sacking came shortly after. About a month later, Abt signed for the

, replacing

after travel restrictions disallowed the latter to travel to Berlin.

Hiatus from racing (2021–present)

In November 2020, Abt revealed that he had received an offer to race in the 2020-21 season of Formula E, but he declined it in favour of temporarily stepping away from motorsports. Instead, he joined Sat.1 as a TV expert and co-commentator for the channel's Formula E coverage that season. Abt was adamant that it wouldn't be "a goodbye to motorsports", but he felt that sitting out of doing any official racing for a year was "the right way" for him and that he was "looking forward to it so much."

Additional information

From 2008 to 2010, Abt was a candidate of the Deutsche Post Speed Academy. As the Academy's overall winner in 2009 and 2010 he became "Germany's motorsport talent of the year."„Daniel Abt: Der Sieger 2010“
(speed-academy.de 14 Februar 2011) Since 2010, Abt has also been a member of

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

's talent promotion programme.

Personal life

Besides Daniel Abt, other members of his family are involved in motorsport. His father, Hans-Jürgen, is the owner and principal of the Abt Sportsline team which is active in the DTM and other series. His family also owns a German auto tuning company which primarily works on Audis. His uncle,

Christian Abt Christian Abt (born 8 May 1967) is a race car driver born in Kempten, Germany, into a family of amateur race drivers and car dealers. His elder brother Hans-Jürgen Abt runs the Abt Sportsline Audi racing teams as well as their tuning company f ...

, is a racing driver as well and was active in the DTM for a number of years. Abt is managing director of Abt Lifestyle GmbH.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete ADAC Formel Masters results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(

)

Complete GP3 Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(

)

Complete GP2 Series results

(

)

Complete Formula E results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abt, Daniel 1992 births Living people People from Kempten im Allgäu Sportspeople from Swabia (Bavaria) Racing drivers from Bavaria German racing drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers ADAC Formel Masters drivers Formula 3 Euro Series drivers GP3 Series drivers from Germany GP2 Series drivers Formula E drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers ART Grand Prix drivers 24H Series drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers Abt Sportsline drivers Performance Racing drivers Van Amersfoort Racing drivers Tech 1 Racing drivers Signature Team drivers Carlin racing drivers Rebellion Racing drivers NIO 333 FE Team drivers Audi Sport drivers Hilmer Motorsport drivers