Red Bull Racing took action against its Formula 1 employee over racist comments.
Recently, racist comments emerged online against Lewis Hamilton after a crash at Silverstone. Max Verstappen car crashed at 51G while the British driver was able to return to the race due to red flag.
Hamilton had to chase down Charles Leclerc to win the British Grand Prix. He had to face a ten second penalty by stewards, which Red Bull contested.
Hamilton faced harsh ciritcism over the incident and few resorted to racism. Following the incident, WhatsApp conversation emerged which contained racist language.
Red Bull spokesperson confirmed to Autosport about the employee. The team has ended its engagement with the member. He was not a publicly-known and had been working with track-side team.
“As publicly acknowledged last week, we condemn racist abuse of any kind. And have a zero-tolerance policy to racist behaviour within our organisation,” a spokesperson for Red Bull said.
“The person in question is no longer an employee of Red Bull Racing.”
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Despite a big crash, Red Bull stood for Lewis Hamilton after the racist abuse. Mercedes, the FIA and F1 issued a joint statement to denounce the racism of any kind in the sport.
Following the footsteps, many drivers and teams in F1 has stood against racism.
Red Bull issued the statement on Monday, “While we may be fierce rivals on-track, we are all united against racism.
“We condemn racist abuse of any kind towards our team, our competitors and our fans.
“As a team we are disgusted and saddened to witness the racist abuse Lewis endured yesterday on social media after the collision with Max.
“There is never any excuse for it. There is certainly no place for it in our sport and those responsible should be held accountable.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, added: “Whilst the rivalry is intense on-track for the championship, highly charged emotions should never cross the line into racist abuse.
“We have a zero tolerance approach to racist behaviour within our team. I personally feel strongly that those responsible for this sort of abuse should be held to account.
“We will continue to support the FIA and F1 in order to eradicate this from our sport.”
Hamilton appreciated F1 community for its stand against racist abuse and added that it was “the first time I didn’t stand alone”.
