Professional Race Car Driver Suspended from Team After Saying Slur While Streaming Call of Duty Warzone

When streaming, people are under a microscope. At any time, many people are watching them play games and everything that that entails. Even as high-profile people and streamers get public relations training and other resources, streamers keep slipping up and those slip-ups have consequences. Now a streaming incident will be causing problems for someone’s career as a young professional race car driver is finding out.

Formula 2 driver Juri Vips has been suspended by Oracle Red Bull Racing after a clip from teammate Liam Lawson’s Twitch stream began circulating where someone was recorded using the n-word. While playing Call of Duty Warzone, with Red Bull Junior Team teammate Liam Lawson and one other person, Vips apparently was downed and blurted out the n-word in frustration. Lawson and the other person partially check him by calling his name without directly mentioning what was said followed by nervous laughter.

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Formula 2 is the developmental series that feeds talent into Formula 1. Red Bull Racing and the Red Bull brand are massive entities in both sports, gaming, and internet culture. It fields various teams across a myriad of racing disciplines including current F1 Champion Max Verstappen and does the same in the esports scene. With millions of followers on social media, the organization was quick to act once it received word of the incident.

Vips, an Estonian, has already shared an apology on his Instagram. Oracle Red Bull Racing also condemned the incident in its press release that announced his suspension. It’s currently unclear how long he will be out of his Formula 2 car with Hitech GP and away from the Red Bull Junior Team. He’s currently 7th in the Formula 2 Championship and has spent time in Red Bull’s Formula 1 car in a practice session during the 2022 season.

This isn’t even the only incident that involved a race car driver saying the n-word on stream. In 2020, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was caught saying the n-word with hard inflection on the R while streaming during an invitational event on iRacing. Larson, who is Asian, was suspended by NASCAR for the rest of the season and lost his seat at Ganassi Racing. After dedicating time and other resources to a variety of organizations that served children of color, and completing NASCAR’s sensitivity training, his suspension was lifted for 2021.

Time and again, streamers, and in this case, the people around them, are caught using inappropriate words while streaming and must deal with the consequences. Even counting Vips’ homogeneously European background, the word is known worldwide as a slur regardless of what context is attached. It shouldn’t be a go-to word when venting mild frustration at a videogame, but people keep getting in trouble for it. This incident may not hurt Vips’ career in the long run, but for now, he will be watching from the pit lane.

Source: Twitter



Source: Gamerant

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