Red Bull Racing has decided to terminate the contract of their reserve driver Juri Vips after an investigation into a racial slur made during a live stream.
The Formula One championship leaders took their decision regarding the Estonian on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Formula Two driver was suspended by the team and had an investigation launched against him last week after a video appeared on social media of him making indecent comments while gaming on the streaming platform Twitch.
He went on to apologize for his “entirely unacceptable” language.
The issue was exacerbated by Nelson Piquet’s recent use of racial slur while referring to Lewis Hamilton causing an uproar in the racing community.
“Following its investigation into an online incident involving Juri Vips, Oracle Red Bull Racing has terminated Juri’s contract as its test and reserve driver,” the team said on Twitter ahead of the British Grand Prix.
“The team do not condone any form of racism”.
Vips has been racing in Formula Two with British-based Hitech Grand Prix and last month was given a chance to drive Red Bull’s Formula One car during the first practice of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Despite Red Bull boasting one of the largest pools of young racing talent, Vips was seen as the most promising junior driver to take over an F1 seat someday.
Red Bull lead both Formula One driver and constructor championships and Vips’ team role was to support world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Red Bull runs one of the most successful junior programs with Max Verstappen, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly having all graduated from Red Bull’s junior team to now Formula1 drivers.
