From Tallinn karting to the 2017 ADAC Formula 4 title, Formula 2 wins and a Red Bull exit, then IndyCar and sportscars: the career of an Estonian driver.
Juri Vips, born in Tallinn in 2000, is an Estonian driver. He took two Formula 2 wins at Baku in 2021, and since leaving the Red Bull programme he has raced in IndyCar and IMSA, with a GTD Pro debut at the 2026 Daytona 24 Hours.
Juri Vips is an Estonian racing driver who won the 2017 ADAC Formula 4 title and went on to win Formula 2 and Formula 3 races. He was part of the Red Bull Junior Team until 2022, when his contract was ended after an incident during a livestream. Since then he has raced in IndyCar and IMSA sportscars, and he makes his GTD Pro debut at the 2026 Daytona 24 Hours.
Who is Juri Vips?
Vips was born in Tallinn on 10 August 2000 and began competitive karting in his native Estonia in 2011. He won the Rotax Junior Estonian Championship in 2013 and then took the junior victory at the 2014 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.
He is also known for an unusual skill with numbers. He has been able to perform complex mental calculations since childhood, and he appeared on an Estonian talent show to demonstrate the ability.
An Estonian karter who won in Formula 2 and Formula 3, then rebuilt his career in IndyCar and sportscars after a Red Bull exit.
How did Vips rise through karting and Formula 4?
In 2015 Vips raced in the CIK-FIA European KF1 Championship against future Formula 3 drivers Richard Verschoor and Marcus Armstrong, and he finished twelfth. He then moved to car racing in 2016, debuting with Prema Powerteam in the Italian F4 and ADAC Formula 4 championships.
In ADAC Formula 4 that year he finished sixth. In Italian F4 he finished fifth overall and took the rookie title after winning the final race of the season. In the 2016-17 winter he competed in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship in India, taking three podiums and finishing sixth in the standings.
The 2017 season brought his biggest title in junior racing. In ADAC Formula 4 he fought for the championship with teammate Marcus Armstrong, and the title was settled in the final race at the Hockenheimring, where pole-sitter Armstrong lost the lead to Artem Petrov. Vips was crowned champion. He had also raced as a guest in the Italian F4 series, taking two poles and a race win at Mugello.
What did Vips achieve in Formula 3?
After his ADAC success Vips tested Formula 3 machinery with Prema at Magny-Cours, then made his FIA Formula 3 European Championship debut as a guest in October 2017. He won a full-time seat with Motopark for 2018, taking three poles and four race wins on his way to fourth in the standings, behind teammate Dan Ticktum and two Prema drivers.
He made his Macau Grand Prix debut in November 2018. He finished seventh in the qualification race and was classed seventh in the main race, but a forty-second penalty for an overtake under red-flag conditions dropped him to nineteenth place.
In 2019 he joined Hitech Grand Prix for the new FIA Formula 3 Championship. He took feature wins at the Red Bull Ring and at Silverstone, where he started from pole, and he finished fourth in the championship behind three Prema drivers. That season he also returned to Macau with Hitech, setting the fastest qualifying time, a new lap record, and winning the qualifying race from pole. He finished second in the main race, 0.792 seconds behind Verschoor.
How did Vips's 2020 and 2021 Formula 2 seasons unfold?
The Formula 2 route opened in 2020 when Vips was called up to replace the injured DAMS driver Sean Gelael. He scored his first points at Mugello, finishing seventh in the feature race and third in the sprint. Earlier that year he had also raced for KIC Motorsport in the Formula Regional European Championship, claiming a double podium at Paul Ricard.
For 2021 he moved into a full-time Formula 2 seat with Hitech, alongside Liam Lawson. He qualified fifth at Bahrain but was excluded for a technical infringement. The season was a mix of close finishes and bad luck, including a gearbox failure in the opening round and another mechanical retirement later in the year.
The turning point came at Baku, where he won his maiden Formula 2 race in the series' one-hundredth round. He followed it up with another victory in the feature, becoming the first driver to win two Formula 2 races in a single weekend. He finished the season sixth in the standings with 120 points, two wins and six podiums.
| Season | Team | Key result | Championship |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Prema Powerteam | Italian F4 rookie title | Fifth in Italian F4 |
| 2017 | Prema Powerteam | ADAC Formula 4 champion | Champion |
| 2018 | Motopark | Three poles and four race wins | Fourth |
| 2019 | Hitech Grand Prix | Wins at Red Bull Ring and Silverstone | Fourth |
| 2021 | Hitech Grand Prix | Two Baku wins | Sixth, 120 points |
| 2022 | Hitech Grand Prix | Monza sprint win | 11th, 114 points |
What did the 2022 Formula 2 season bring?
In 2022 Vips partnered Marcus Armstrong at Hitech. He took his first pole of the season at Imola and returned to the podium at Monaco, where he had jumped Jack Doohan in the pit stops. He also won the Monza sprint race after passing Frederik Vesti for the lead, and he took another pole at Baku, where he led most of the feature race before crashing out.
The season ended with 114 points and 11th in the standings. The Baku pole showed his pace, but the race ended in a crash from the lead, which showed how fragile his points could be. Vips also had problems with slow pit stops and qualifying in several rounds, which cost him points in a season that promised more.
What led to Vips's split with Red Bull?
Vips joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2018, and by 2020 he was a Formula One reserve driver. In November 2020 he gained his FIA Super Licence after a 300 km test in a Red Bull RB8 at Silverstone. He served as a reserve driver for Red Bull and AlphaTauri at several Grands Prix, and he made his Formula One free practice debut at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix in place of Sergio Perez.
In June 2022 Red Bull suspended him while it investigated an incident during a livestream, in which he was heard using a racial slur. The contract with Red Bull Racing and the Junior Team was terminated on 28 June. Christian Horner said the team hoped to continue supporting him, but on 19 July Helmut Marko confirmed that Vips was no longer receiving support from Red Bull.
How did IndyCar and sportscars follow?
In October 2022 Vips took part in a private IndyCar evaluation at Sebring with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He finished second of the five drivers tested, and in March 2023 he tested again at Barber, replacing the injured Jack Harvey. He made his IndyCar debut at Portland at the end of August 2023, finishing 18th in his first race and winning the rookie race.
He finished the 2023 IndyCar season in 33rd with eighteen points, and he was not picked for the full-time seat at RLL that followed. He returned to the team for the Portland race in 2024 in the No. 75 entry. At the start of 2026 Vips was confirmed for GTD Pro at the 24 Hours of Daytona with RLL Team McLaren, which marks his move into endurance racing.
What happened in the 2019 Super Formula and 2020 seasons?
In the final round of the 2019 Super Formula season Vips replaced Patricio O'Ward at Team Mugen. He qualified nineteenth, ran as high as fifth, and then stalled during his pit stop, which dropped him to eighteenth by the finish.
He rejoined the team for a December 2019 test at Suzuka, and a 2020 Super Formula campaign with Mugen was planned. The series start was then postponed until August because of the pandemic, and the closure of Japan's borders to foreign nationals put his ability to compete into doubt. His manager, Marko Asmer, made clear that the Super Formula campaign came first, with the European series as a back-up if travel to Japan became impossible.
He was not able to enter Japan in time for the first round, and Mugen replaced him with Ukyo Sasahara. The gap in his calendar was filled by Formula Regional European Championship work with KIC Motorsport, and his first race there at Misano ended in retirement after a spin into the gravel.
How did the 2021 Monza and Sochi rounds go?
At Monza in 2021 Vips led the early part of the sprint race before losing the lead to Pourchaire, and at Sochi he finished second in the first sprint in mixed conditions. Mechanical failures ended his feature races at both circuits, and he said he was very frustrated.
At Monza he qualified ninth and started second in the first sprint, then took the lead into the first corner. He kept it until lap fifteen, when Pourchaire passed him, and he retired from the feature race on lap seven after a mechanical issue.
At Sochi he was unable to pressure race winner Dan Ticktum during the first sprint, and the feature race ended in another mechanical failure. Those rounds were a clear example of how much his results depended on reliability as well as speed. The two weekends came midway through a season that ended in sixth place, with two wins and six podiums to show for it.
His 2021 campaign therefore showed two sides. He had strong sprint pace, but a run of mechanical retirements in the feature races cost him points that his speed had earned.
How did the mid-2022 Formula 2 rounds go?
Vips returned to form in the middle of 2022, with a front-row start in Austria, a second-place finish in the Budapest sprint and a climb from the back at Spa-Francorchamps. Penalties and slow pit stops still held back his results during that stretch.
In Austria he finished fifth in the sprint and led early in the feature race, but an extra pit stop after starting on wet tyres on a drying track dropped him to eighth. At Spa he started at the back and made up fourteen places in the feature race to take eighth and a point.
Budapest was his best weekend of that spell. He made up three places at the start of the sprint race to take second and held it to the flag, then finished the feature race in fifth after a successful alternative strategy. At Zandvoort he finished fifth and seventh.
Where does Vips's career stand now?
Vips's career has been a mix of rapid results and setbacks. His ADAC Formula 4 title, Macau performances, Formula 2 wins at Baku and an IndyCar race win in the rookie category all stand out on his record. The Red Bull exit was the biggest turning point, and it changed the direction of his work.
He now races in new categories, including the IMSA sportscar scene and his first Daytona 24 Hours in a GTD Pro car. The next chapter will show whether the speed he displayed in Formula 2 can carry into a new discipline.
