Christian Horner justified the taurine team's omission after the unfortunate racism episode against Lewis Hamilton, using Jüri Vips' expulsion as an example and saying that Red Bull makes "actions speak louder than words
Unlike Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin and, of course, Mercedes, Red Bull has not spoken out publicly about the racism committed by Nelson Piquet against Lewis Hamilton. In an interview in November last year, the former Brazilian driver referred to the seven-time world champion more than once using a derogatory, racist term.
Moreover, GRANDE PRÊMIO had access to the then removed complete video of the interview and found another disgusting speech by Piquet - who, in addition to repeating the racist offense, also used a homophobic hook against Hamilton.
Not only teams, but also Formula One itself, the FIA, drivers, former drivers, organizations: much of the motorsport community took strong action or at least spoke out against Piquet. But not Red Bull. And the taurine team boss Christian Horner explained the reason for this.
"First of all, we are horrified by Nelson's (Piquet) comments, which are from an interview made some time ago. But we had an incident with one of our young drivers and we took very definite action, where he (Vips) made a racist comment and we took action. We immediately removed him from the team. Then we made a public statement about Juri (Vips) and it (Piquet's racism) came to light. We felt that we had already made a strong statement, through the action of removing Juri from our team," Horner justified.
"We are in no way condoning any form of racism or discrimination. We fully support Lewis (Hamilton). We feel that actions speak louder than words, and the decision we took regarding Juri was draconian (harsh), but in line with the policy we have," the Energy team boss added.
It is worth remembering that, in fact, Red Bull released the official statement of Vips' dismissal after Nelson Piquet's statements went viral, and not the opposite, as Horner stated.
After trying to explain the inexplicable and recalling the Jüri Vips case, Horner showed support for Max Verstappen's statement. The reigning world champion stated that his father-in-law Nelson Piquet was wrong to use racist terms to refer to Lewis Hamilton, but defended the three-time champion and cited that he is not prejudiced, even after committing an act of prejudice.
"Max was absolutely clear that he supports Lewis 100%, as he said in the press conference. Not only Lewis, but he is against any form of racism or discrimination in the sport. As Red Bull, we are a young and very inclusive team. We have a young and diverse following, and that's very important to us," Horner said.
As for the support shown for Hamilton by the public at Silverstone, Horner said he saw this as natural. And he preferred to emphasize the fan support that Red Bull will have next week when Formula One visits Austria.
"Lewis will have great support here, and next week we will have support because of our home race (in Austria). That's the way sport and competition is. It's never nice to hear any drivers booed and it's unusual for a British GP crowd to do that, because usually they appreciate all the drivers - but it's something you know he (Verstappen) accepts. Lewis is the favorite driver here and I know that next weekend we will have a lot of support," concluded the Red Bull boss.