Red Bull has suspended one of its star junior drivers after he used a racist slur during a live stream of a video game on Tuesday.
Juri Vips is a test and reserve driver for Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, and recently made his F1 race weekend debut, standing in for Sergio Perez at the Spanish Grand Prix, in one of the two mandatory outings for rookie drivers.
The career of the F2 star is now at the crossroads. Wide World of Sports has chosen not to publish what Vips said due to the nature of the language used.
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“Red Bull Racing has suspended junior driver Juri Vips from all team duties with immediate effect, pending a full investigation into the incident,” the team said.
“As an organisation we condemn abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behaviour within our organisation.”
Vips has also issued the now standard social media apology.
“I wish to unreservedly apologise for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream earlier today,” he wrote.
“This language is entirely unacceptable and does not portray the values and principles that I hold.
“I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set. I will cooperate with the investigation fully.”
The Estonian has been a member of Red Bull’s junior programme since 2018. He finished fourth in the 2019 F3 championship, and is now in his third season of F2. His F2 team boss, Oliver Oakes, told Motorsport.com he was “shocked and appalled to hear about this incident”.
“The comments made by Juri are offensive and completely not reflective of Hitech’s inclusive values,” he said.
“Like everyone else, I found out about this an hour ago – the video and Red Bull’s suspension with an investigation to follow.”
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