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Juri Vips' Formula 1 career appears to be over before it's even begun after he was suspended for using racist language whilst live streaming Warzone.
In their statement, Red Bull Racing said: "We condemn abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behaviour within our organisation."
In response, Vips released a statement admitting what he said was unacceptable adding: "I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set. I will co-operate with the investigation fully."
What could happen next?
The Estonian has been suspended pending a full investigation but what punishment could he face. Well, he’s been suspended from all team duties which basically means he won’t be doing anything until the conclusion of the investigation.
With the next four race weekends in Formula 2 all taking place in July we can assume it means he’s likely to miss races in Britain, Austria, France and Hungary as he will not be representing his Hitech Grand Prix team. With the summer break coming up after that, Red Bull and Hitech might look to make a permanent decision on his future during that period.
In the past Vips has tested for the Red Bull Formula 1 team, and with a busy schedule of four races in July coming up, they may have seen it as an opportunity to put him in the cockpit of the car. However, he won’t be anywhere near the cockpit of any F1 car anytime soon. As for his aspirations of racing in the pinnacle of motorsport, well he might have just blown any chance he had. Red Bull Racing have no shortage of drivers in their academy, and they’re all vying for a very limited number of spaces at Alpha Tauri and Red Bull.
If Red Bull does opt to remove him from their programme who’s going to want to take a risk with him? If we take the way the world came together against Nikita Mazepin’s actions in 2020, Red Bull or whichever team hire him could face a similar reaction, albeit under very different circumstances.
So who would want that? And it’s not as if Vips already has an F1 seat. With all the hard work Formula 1 is doing to make the sport a more inclusive and equal place through the We Race As One campaign as well as other programmes the sport is involved in, it could threaten to undermine the work they do if Vips were to take a seat in F1.
Red Bull has plenty of drivers on their roster so Juri Vips may have just blown his chance at racing in the top tier of motorsport.