Red Bull confirm driver changes after Vips termination

Ewan Gale
Saturday 2 July 2022 13:45

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has announced Liam Lawson will fill the test and reserve role previously held by Juri Vips.

Estonian Vips saw his contract terminated ahead of the British Grand Prix after using a derogatory racial slur during a live stream of a gaming session.

The Milton Keynes-based team swiftly conducted an internal investigation and concluded that it would release Vips from his role.

Red Bull was not short of options from its pool of junior drivers, with Horner revealing New Zealander Lawson will fill the role.

Ironically, it was Lawson who was part of the live stream in which Vips used the slur that saw him dropped from the programme.

"Liam Lawson steps into that role following the Juri Vips announcement," confirmed Horner.

Although Jehan Daruvala completed a test with McLaren ahead of the Silverstone weekend and holds a superlicence, Horner added: "Jehan is doing a great job.

"We are just following his progress with interest as well as Dennis Hauger, qualifying for superlicenses. That is our coverage at this point in time."

Red Bull has "no shortage" of talent - Horner

Red Bull has seven drivers competing in the F2 and F3 support series, all looking to forge a path into F1.

On where the junior programme stood given Daruvala's test with McLaren and Vips' contract termination, Horner explained: "We have quite a few youngsters and some really promising youngsters that are out there at the moment.

"We have Lawson and Hauger racing in Formula 2 and we have Daruvala who remains a junior driver despite testing with another team. [Ayumu] Iwasa is showing great potential as well.

"It is great to see Johnny Edgar back after a nasty illness [Crohn's disease] earlier in the year. We have given him another chance.

"Isack Hadjar is doing a super job as well. So we have got no shortage of talent coming through all the way from karting through the different formulae.

"That has always been a policy at Red Bull, to give youth a chance, to back youth and give opportunities to some of these kids who otherwise wouldn't have been able to progress with their careers."