Juri Vips #

Introduction #

Juri Vips is an Estonian racing driver who spent four years in the Red Bull junior programme and served as the team’s Formula 1 test and reserve driver until June 2022, when Red Bull terminated his contract with immediate effect after he used a racial slur during a live gaming stream. The 21-year-old appeared to use the n-word while streaming on Twitch alongside fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson, and within a week he had gone from the team’s reserve driver to a former one. The dismissal broke on a day when Formula 1 was already consumed by the question of racist language, after footage emerged of three-time champion Nelson Piquet directing a slur at Lewis Hamilton.

Background Information #

Vips joined the Red Bull set-up as a junior driver in 2018 and by 2022 was in his third season of Formula 2, driving for Hitech with Red Bull backing and sitting seventh in the championship. His season on track had been eventful for the wrong reasons: he crashed out of the Baku feature race while leading, having earlier spun off in the Imola feature race after taking pole position. As a Red Bull junior he had just made his first Formula 1 race weekend appearance, driving in free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix under the championship’s young driver stipulation. He was, in short, a genuine Formula 1 prospect when the stream happened.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Own conduct, undisputed. The slur described here was Vips’s own, spoken on his own livestream, and he publicly apologised for it the same day. What follows is drawn from reporting on the stream and the team’s statements.

The incident took place on a Twitch gaming stream, where Vips appeared to use the n-word while playing alongside fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson. He apologised the same day in a statement posted to his Instagram profile: “I wish to unreservedly apologise for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream earlier today. This language is entirely unacceptable and does not portray the values and principles that I hold.” He added: “I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set. I will cooperate with the investigation fully.” Red Bull said there would be a “full investigation into the incident”, and the team suspended the 21-year-old Estonian pending its outcome.

The timing compounded the damage. News of the Piquet video — in which the Brazilian former champion referred to Lewis Hamilton with a racial slur — had broken the same day, and Hamilton responded forcefully: “These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport… Time has come for action”. Hours later, Red Bull announced that it had parted ways with Vips.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The consequences were swift and formal. Six days after the offending stream, Red Bull confirmed the termination in a short statement: “Following its investigation into an online incident involving Juri Vips, Red Bull Racing has terminated Juri’s contract as its test and reserve driver,” the team said, adding: “The team do not condone any form of racism.” The BBC reported that the team had suspended Vips the previous week before announcing the sacking on the Tuesday, reiterating that it did “not condone any form of racism”. Because the decision landed in the middle of the sport’s reckoning over Piquet’s slur and Hamilton’s demand for “action”, the case was covered not as an isolated gaffe but as part of the same story.

Current Status #

Vips lost his Red Bull contract with immediate effect in June 2022, ending his place in the team’s driver programme four years after it began. His Formula 2 seat was a separate question: Motor Sport reported before the sacking that he was understood to retain his Hitech seat, with his next scheduled race at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix weekend, while the BBC, writing after the dismissal, said only that his future with the team was unclear.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The slur cost Vips the single most valuable asset a junior driver can hold: the backing of a Formula 1 team. A driver who weeks earlier had driven a Red Bull car in a grand prix practice session was removed from the programme entirely, and at 21 years old the path to Formula 1 — the thing his place in the junior scheme existed to deliver — was cut off. The case also fed a wider moment for the sport: sandwiched between Piquet’s slur and Hamilton’s warning that “archaic mindsets” had to change, Red Bull’s decision to dismiss its own reserve driver within six days of the stream signalled how little tolerance the team would extend once the offence came from inside. For Vips, the episode became the defining line of his public biography — the reserve driver known less for his seventh place in Formula 2 than for the stream that ended his Red Bull career in a single week.