Red Bull Racing had indefinitely suspended junior driver Juri Vips after he was seen using a racial slur during a gaming stream on Tuesday evening. In a statement, Red Bull Racing said, “As an organization, we condemn the abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behavior within our organization.”

The 21-year-old was relieved of all team duties with immediate effect. Vips has since apologized for the comments, saying in a lengthy post on Instagram, “I wish to unreservedly apologize for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream earlier today. This language is entirely unacceptable and does not portray the values and principles that I hold. I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set. I will cooperate with the investigation fully.”

Vips was reportedly playing the game Call of Duty Warzone with teammate Liam Lawson when the incident occurred. Vips had cursed and said the “n-word,” which prompted Lawson to reply “Juri” before laughing. Earlier in the stream, Lawson had asked Vips to wear a Red Bull cap which was pink, to which Vips replied, “No that’s gay.”

Athletes have been in hot water for using derogatory language on live streams before. Most recently NBA player Meyers Leonard was suspended and fined $50,000 for using an anti-Semitic slur during a Twitch stream. Twitch has largely become a platform for athletes to spend their free time and interact with fans, with fellow F1 driver Lando Norris, NBA players Kyrie Irving, Josh Hart and De’Aaron Fox having their own Twitch channels.

Vips currently races with British-based team Hitech GP. He currently is in seventh place in the Formula 2 standings. This year he also replaced Sergio Perez during a Red Bull F1 practice session in Spain.

Lewis Hamilton, seven-time Formula One champion, could call it quits after last Sunday’s race ended in a controversial win for Max Verstappen.

“I would very much hope that Lewis continues racing – because he is the greatest driver of all times,” Toto Wolff, team principal and co-owner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team said. “I think as a racer his heart will say he needs to continue.”

Hamilton had been going for eight. The win would’ve made him the undisputed GOAT of F1 racing passing Michael Schumacher who also won seven titles.

Hamilton was in the lead with an 11-second advantage over Verstappen when there was a crash on the track. The safety car came out and Verstappen stopped to get new tires. Hamilton kept going with the assumption that he would keep his lead over Verstappen and the cars between them that they had lapped would be enough to get him to the finish line first without new tires. And it should’ve been.

Verstappen’s Red Bull made a call to the race director, Michael Masi, and counseled him to reset the cars. Instead of resetting all the cars, Masi made a last-minute decision to take the other cars off the track and set up a dual just between Hamilton and Verstappen. Verstappen and his freshly tired car were set right behind Hamilton giving Verstappen an unfair advantage and a win.

“We are not disillusioned with the sport – we love the sport with every bone in our body, and we love it because the stopwatch never lies,” Wolff said. “But if we break that fundamental principle of sporting fairness and authenticity of the sport, then suddenly the stopwatch doesn’t become relevant anymore because we are exposed to random decision-making, that it is clear you may fall out of love with. That you start to question if all the work you have been putting in – all the sweat, tears and blood – can actually be demonstrated in terms of being the best possible performance on track, because it can be taken away randomly.”

Hamilton and Wolff will not be attending the FIA Gala in Paris on Thursday night.

After crashing into another driver in the British Grand Prix and later winning the race, star Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton was targeted with racial abuse online.

Hamilton is the only black driver in Formula One racing. Formula One, Mercedes-AMG Petronas and the International Automobile Federation all released a joint statement condemning the racial taunts.

Sky Sports reported racist messages consisting of “monkey emojis” and other slurs that were commented on an Instagram post by the Mercedes team celebrating Hamilton’s victory. 

A spokesperson for Facebook, owner of Instagram, made a statement to CBS News calling the abuse “unacceptable” and noted the removal of any comments made.

The spokesperson stated, “No single thing will fix this challenge overnight but we’re committed to the work to keep our community safe from abuse.”

McLaren and Aston Martin were among the other F1 teams that provided supportive messages to Hamilton. 

McLaren said, “Racism must be driven out of our sport, and it’s our shared responsibility to unite and eliminate it.”

Hamilton’s collision in the race was with rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing. The incident occurred in the first lap and resulted in Verstappen being sent to the hospital. Hamilton overcame the 10-second penalty he was given and recorded his eighth career victory at the British Grand Prix. 

Verstappen was outspoken about the situation, calling Hamilton’s move which resulted in the accident “dangerous.” Verstappen also was unhappy with Hamilton’s “unsportsmanlike” celebrations after his victory.

Hamilton tweeted after the victory and explained that the incident with Verstappen was a “reminder of the dangers of this sport.”

“I send my best wishes to Max who is an incredible competitor,” said Hamilton. “I’m glad to hear he is ok. I will always race hard but always fairly. My team showed grit and perseverance out there. It’s a dream to win in front of my home crowd.” 

Hamilton is 36 years old and is widely considered one of the greatest drivers in the sport. The driver has been an outspoken supporter of Black Lives Matter. He has knelt on one knee in support of the protests begun by Colin Kapernick and worn a shirt calling for the justice for Breonna Taylor. 

Prior to the start of the Formula One Racing season, which formally begins on March 15 with the Australian Grand Prix, each racing team reveals their two drivers, cars and reserves. After all this filler is done, the racers get to test their new cars at three pre-season testing sites: with the first currently underway in Jerez, Spain. These events allow the drivers to see the quality of their new rides and eventually tweak them to their liking.

As for the results of the first pre-season event in Jerez, the unofficial times of the third day’s session has the young inexperienced Felipe Nasr of Sauber finishing 109 laps in 1 minute and 21.545 seconds per lap. Nasr’s performance was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari (1:21.750 in 94 laps), Nico Rosberg of Mercedes (1:21.982 in 151 laps), Felipe Massa of Williams (1:22.276 in 71 laps), Pastor Maldonado of Lotus (1:22.713 in 96 laps), Carlos Sainz Jr. of Toro Rosso (1:23.187 in 137 laps), Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:23.901 in 49 laps) and finally Fernando Alonso from McLaren (1:35.553 in 32 laps).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_S2uJwpbn4

While Nasr had the best time today, these results should be taken with a grain of salt: as this is just the first event of a long process of tweaking and fixing. By the time March 15 comes around, a lot of these cars will look and perform different than they did today. Furthermore, Nasr, a relative newcomer who was a reserve for Williams in 2014, is predicted to be in the lower half of the 2015 results.

The test in Jerez ends tomorrow with the next event happening in Barcelona from Feb. 19-22. After that, the final pre-season test is again in Barcelona from Feb. 26-March 1. At the moment, 2014 world title winner Lewis Hamilton is the favorite to win the 2015 season: with Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso having the second and third best odds according to various betting organizations.