Audi's Daniel Abt has accused teams in Formula E of gaining an unfair advantage on race day by abusing the electric series' 'FanBoost' system.
One month before each ePrix, Formula E fans can cast a vote for their favourite driver, with the three drivers receiving the most votes getting a single power boost of 30kw (roughly 40bhp), taking the power of their car from 200bhp to 240bhp for five seconds.
Accusations of teams abusing the voting system are nothing new, but Abt says he is now "fed up to the back teeth", by the conniving which, according to Abt, involves massive voting originating from China!
"I know you work your asses off to vote for me, and I'm working my ass off to get you involved. But then there are some drivers who manage to cheat a bit," Abt told fans in a video blog.
"I'm not saying it because I'm a sore loser, I'm saying it because I know it - somebody told me about it. Definitely there's something wrong.
"We were in front [with the votes for last week's Santiago race] the whole time, but suddenly some drivers get a lot of votes overnight.
"Strangely, all the votes are from 12 cities in China. They must have an awesome fanbase there.
"Formula E knows about it, but they can't do anything because they cannot prove it properly. This is a catastrophe. I was getting really upset about it."
"I'm feeling cheated. I know we would win this thing every time, if it was fair. I'm fighting for a fair treatment."
The back-office of Formula E's 'FanBoost' system is handled by third-party Telescope, a company well-versed in online polling and authentication procedures, and which works with such popular TV programs such as 'The Voice', 'American Idol' or 'Dancing with the Stars'.
Following Abt's outburst, Formula CEO Alejandro Agag defended the integrity of the 'FanBoost', insisting the system's process and security are closely monitored.
"The Fanboost voting system is constantly monitored and reviewed to ensure user verification and credible results," said Agag.
"We've continued to improve the system since it was implemented in the first-ever season of Formula E, adding further layers of authentication to the voting process following suggestions from the teams.
"Well over a million fans have voted for their favourite driver and we see this number growing as the popularity of the series increases.
"The system is very reliable and drivers shouldn't waste time in questioning the validity of Fanboost."
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