Mercedes driver defends Juri Vips after Red Bull axe and calls for F2 rivals to back star

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Spanish racing driver Dani Juncadella has jumped to his peer Juri Vips’ defence in light of his recent controversy. Vips recently had his Red Bull contract terminated after using a racist slur during a gaming live stream.

Vips, 21, was sacked by Red Bull after he was caught appearing to use the n-word while streaming a video game session on Twitch. Formula 2 was ‘surprised’ by Hitech’s decision to let Vips keep his seat for the remainder of their season.

The organisation said it would “monitor the situation carefully,” but Juncadella—who drives for Mercedes in the ADAC GT Masters—said Vips has suffered enough.

“Right, you would have rather fired him, beaten him, buried him to the ground,” tweeted the 31-year-old in response to the F2 statement. “Honestly this is getting to the point where I feel we, as fellow racing drivers, should voice our concern. The guy has paid and will keep paying for his terrible mistake, but deserves a 2nd chance!”

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Critics might suggest Vips could “keep paying” by losing his F2 seat, sending a clear message against racism from the sport as a whole. Formula 2 added Hitech’s decision to keep their driver was “not the one we would have taken” given his offence.

In a follow-up tweet, Juncadella wrote: “I bet all these disrespectful replies I’m getting to this, are coming from the same people who held [Nicholas] Latifi accountable for last year’s F1 WC result and threatened him to death for weeks. This platform is a sad place nowadays.”

The mention of Latifi is in reference to the Canadian’s crash at last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton led the race comfortably before that late safety car, which preceded one of the most controversial results in F1 history.

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Juncadella questioned whether Vips was at a point in his career where he could be considered ‘privileged,’ though many argued his untouched status in F2 proved precisely that.

The Mercedes man was told a sacking would be a fine lesson after asking if removing Vips from the grid was the right way to educate him. Upon being told ‘grown men’ should know better than to use racial slurs, Juncadella said many drivers leave school in their early teens and suffer as a result.

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