Abt was born in Kempten, Bavaria. His father, Hans-Jürgen Abt, is the owner and team principal of racing team Abt Sportsline, and his uncle, Christian Abt, is also a racing driver. From 2008 to 2010, Abt was a candidate of the Deutsche Post Speed Academy, earning the title of “Germany’s motorsport talent of the year” in both 2009 and 2010.
Abt began his formula racing career in 2008, competing in the ADAC Formel Masters for Abt Sportsline. In 2009, he commanded the championship, winning eight races and securing the title with 224 points, significantly ahead of his teammate René Binder. He then transitioned to the German Formula Three Championship as a guest entrant in 2009, before joining the championship-winning Van Amersfoort Racing team in 2010.
In 2010, racing in German Formula Three, Abt finished as the overall runner-up to Tom Dillmann, achieving two race wins and ten podium places with 112 points. He competed at the Macau Grand Prix that year, leading the race before an accident caused his retirement. Abt continued in Formula Three in 2011, finishing seventh in the Formula 3 Euro Series.
Abt moved to GP3 in 2012 with Lotus GP, followed by a move to ART Grand Prix in the GP2 Series in 2013. He struggled in his rookie GP2 season, finishing 22nd with eleven points. He continued in GP2 with Hilmer Motorsport in 2014.
Abt’s most prominent years came in Formula E, beginning in the inaugural 2014–15 season with Audi Sport ABT alongside Lucas di Grassi. He achieved one podium finish, a pole position, and a fastest lap, finishing 11th in the championship with 32 points. He achieved his first Formula E race win at the 2018 Mexico City ePrix, after 38 race starts.
Abt was penalised in the inaugural Formula E race after finishing third, due to illegal modifications on his car, dropping him to 10th position. In May 2020, Abt was disqualified from the “Race at Home Challenge” sim racing series after a professional esports player raced in his place, violating the rules. He lost all championship points, received a €10,000 fine donated to charity, and was dismissed by Audi.
In November 2020, Abt announced he would step away from racing, despite being offered a seat for the 2020–21 Formula E season. He instead took on a role as a TV expert and co-commentator for Sat.1’s Formula E broadcasts, stating it was not a permanent goodbye to motorsport but the right decision for him at the time.
Abt tested for Audi in a DTM car at the end of 2011. He also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship, though detailed results are not provided in the available corpus.
Abt is the managing director of Abt Lifestyle GmbH and serves on the supervisory board of ABT SE, the main shareholder of Abt Sportsline GmbH, alongside his father, sister, and others. He previously held a 5.86% stake in Abt Sportsline GmbH. He also runs a YouTube channel, “Daniel Abt,” with 632,000 subscribers and over 204 million views as of December 2023, and co-hosts the podcast “Reden am Limit.”
[unverified] The long-form study of Abt’s career in sports car racing belongs to specialist publications rather than this article’s corpus.
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