Red Bull suspends junior driver Juri Vips for using a “non-negotiable” racial slur on live stream
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Juri Vips
Red Bull, the Milton Keynes-based Formula One team has suspended their junior driver Juri Vips for using a racial slur while playing a live stream COD game.
Immediately after the video of the incident surfaced on social media the energy drink team suspended the young driver from all of his team duties.
The team has a zero-tolerance policy against any kind of racist behavior and to show how committed they are, the team has cut all ties with Vips for an indefinite period of time.
The Austria-based team via their official Instagram handle has also condemned the actions of their young driver by saying, “Red Bull Racing has suspended junior driver Juri Vips from all team duties with immediate effect, pending a full investigation into the incident.”
“As an organization, we condemn abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behavior within our organization.”
The hierarchy at Red Bull does not tolerate any kind of racism and has hence removed Vips from its active pool of young drivers.
However, the team has indicated that a full-fledged investigation into the incident will be conducted to get to the bottom of it and after that, they are expected to make a definitive decision regarding the future of their young driver.
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Juri Vips drove for Red Bull during FP1 at Spanish Grand Prix
Juri has been with the team since 2018 and very recently during the Free Practice 1 session of the Spanish Grand Prix was given the chance to drive Sergio Perez’s RB18.
The 21-year-old is currently participating in Formula 2 for Hitech Grand Prix and after his recent antics, the future of the young driver is up in the air.
Given the brevity of the situation Vips via his Instagram handle has apologized to all the affected parties by saying, “I wish to unreservedly apologize for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream earlier today.”
“The 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 only good that has come out of this whole situation is that at least the young Estonian has realized his mistake and has taken responsibility by coming forward and making a public statement.
However, a final decision regarding the young driver’s ties with the team will be made after the completion of the investigation and it would be interesting to see what decision they are going to make.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)