Horner admits: 'We will continue to support Vips with Red Bull'

Prior to the race weekend at Silverstone, Red Bull Racing announced that they were tearing up the contract with Juri Vips with immediate effect. The reason for this was a racist remark made by the Estonian in a livestream. His chances with Red Bull were therefore ruined, while he was allowed to stay with his Formula 2 team. Christian Horner now acknowledges that Vips still belongs to the Red Bull programme.

"We have cancelled our agreement with him (Vips) and that will undoubtedly give him time for reflection," the Red Bull team boss acknowledged in conversation with The Independent. According to Horner, everyone deserves a second chance, only if they show that they have learned from their mistakes. The young driver from Hitech will therefore still receive support from Red Bull, but a role as reserve driver is not one of them.

"We will be supporting him – even though he has had his agreement terminated – from a mental health and educational perspective. Hopefully he will learn from it." So Vips does remain in contact with Red Bull, so not all ties have been completely severed between Vips and the team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. On Hitech's decision to allow Vips to race, Horner held back.

"That is their decision and we are not funding that drive in any way. That is purely the choice of that Formula 2 team and they have their own reasons for the actions they have taken." Hitech's decision could count on a lot of criticism, including from the F2 management. Nevertheless, Vips drove at Silverstone last weekend.