Red Bull chief Helmut Marko claims that English media is responsible for Juri Vips’ suspension for his inappropriate comments.
Earlier this year, Juri Vips was suspended by Red Bull for his inappropriate comment, where he used the n-word while streaming online. The public availability of his video saying it enforced pressure on the Milton-Keynes-based team.
In effect, Red Bull stripped him from his reserve driver duty. Though, he is still associated with the four-time world champions through their drivers’ development programme.
So, it also raised doubts about Red Bull’s sincerity towards being accountable for its commitment to fight against racism. To make it worse, F1 team advisor Helmut Marko claims the English media’s sh**storm enforced pressure on them to suspend him.
“The English press unleashed such a sh**storm that Red Bull Racing had no choice but to relieve him of all his functions,” said Marko to Formel1. “I think he’s 21 years old and has apologized.”
“It annoys me that it happened in a stupid video game because they don’t have anything better to do in the afternoon. I don’t understand how you can do something like that for more than two minutes. But well, that’s youth. I can’t do anything with it.”
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Why did Max Verstappen never get the same fate as Juri Vips in Red Bull?
In 2020, Verstappen called Lance Stroll a mongo, a mocking word for someone who’s mongoloid. The Mongolian government was deeply hurt to see a global F1 star to use such language and issued a request to the UN to take action against the Dutchman.
However, Verstappen was not even slightly bothered with any action. Thus, why the 2021 world champion didn’t see a similar fate was asked. Marko replies the pressure of sponsors propelled Red Bull to make such an action.
“You can’t compare that. It’s also about the whole development of the two as personalities. Max has always shown a clear edge on such topics. And of course, the pressure from the press and sponsors was so great at Vips that we had to react,” he said.
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