Audi has decided not to appeal against the disqualification of Daniel Abt in Hong Kong, the team announced.
The German won the Formula E race on Sunday but retrospectively lost it due to exclusion from the classification due to a mismatch between part numbers in the technical passport of the car. Consequently, Abt loses his first Formula E victory.
“We took the time to carefully review all documents and processes,” says Team Principal Allan McNish. “We gained no advantage as a result of the administrative error and all parts fully complied to homologation and the technical regulations at all times. Still, we accept the decision of the FIA and fully back the technical passport regulations. Our team made a small mistake with big consequences that we own up to, unfortunately, that deprived Daniel of his very deserved victory of which we can only apologize for. I am sure we will see him on the podium again soon.”
Audi has decided not to appeal against the disqualification of Daniel Abt in Hong Kong
Abt won the race on the very last lap when an overenthusiastic Edoardo Mortara spun. The German driver and Felix Rosenqvist passed him. Abt thought he had taken his maiden Formula E win but his joy was short.
“I feel sorry for Daniel as well, he won the race on track, but I don’t know the reason. It’s not the way you want to win and I don’t feel like I’ve won the race. But I’m happy with the points. Sometimes you’re happy and then you’re sad, like [on Saturday] we were in P15 and turned it around – getting fastest lap but it got taken away, so there’s been a lot like that. But I’ll take maximum points and third in the championship,” Rosenqvist said.
During the post-race scrutineering the stewards found that the FIA security stickers (barcodes) on the inverter and MGU units didn’t correspond with those declared on the technical passport provided by the competitor for the event.
