Jüri Vips

Jüri Vips (born 10 August 2000 in Tallinn, Harju, Estonia) is an Estonian racing driver, who competes in the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship with Hitech Grand Prix. A Red Bull Junior Team member and former ADAC Formula 4 champion, Vips got his first taste of F2 midway through the condensed 2020 season, after a mid-season call-up by DAMS.

Vips' debut came in place of Sean Gelael, who was unable to race after damaging a vertebra in a collision during the 2020 Barcelona Feature Race. Vips would go on to outscore the man he stood in for across eight appearances, claiming a maiden podium finish en-route to sixteenth in the championship.

Background
Vips' career began in karting, with the Estonian racer competing at a national level in his native Estonia in 2011, before going on to win the Rotax Max World Challenge in 2014. In 2016 the Estonian racer graduated into racing cars, with Prema signing Vips to their Italian F4 and ADAC Formula 4 squads. It proved to be a strong rookie season for Vips, with the Estonian racer claiming the rookie title in the former, while winning one race in the latter.

European Esteem: 2017 - 2018
Retained for 2017 in the two F4 series by Prema, Vips would enjoy a strong sophomore campaign, claiming the ADAC F4 title ahead of Marcus Armstrong. He would also get a run out on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the season finale in Hockenheim, with Motopark duly promoting the Estonian racer to their European F3 squad for the 2018 campaign. There, Vips would again show strong pace in his rookie campaign, claiming four victories en-route to fourth in the championship.

Red Bull Runner: 2019 - Present
Ahead of the 2018 Macau Grand Prix it was announced that Vips had been signed by the Red Bull Junior Team, alongside F3 teammate Dan Ticktum. After a run to second in Macau, the RBJT placed Vips in the newly reforged FIA Formula 3 Championship for 2019, with the Estonian racer going on to finish fourth with three victories. For 2020 Red Bull would put Vips in the Super Formula series, before hastily arranging a support programme in the Formula Regional European Championship.

Formula Two History
Vips would get his first taste of the FIA Formula 2 Championship during the 2020 season, after DAMS approached him to take over their #1 car after Sean Gelael fractured a vertebra. The Estonian racer was formally announced as Gelael's replacement on 21 August 2020, and made his debut at the 2020 Spa Feature Race alongside Dan Ticktum. The Estonian racer would bounce back from a relatively poor qualifying session to claim eleventh in the Feature Race, before repeating the feat in the Sprint.

Enhanced Audition: 2020
With 2020 having a particularly condensed calendar Vips was retained by DAMS for the next three rounds after Spa, with many citing his eight race run in 2020 as an audition for the 2021 season. The Estonian racer would again match his eleventh place finish in Spa at the Monza Feature Race, having run inside the points for most of the race. The following day saw Vips narrowly miss out on a maiden point in the Monza Sprint, having survived a smack from Felipe Drugovich after the Brazilian was hit by Roy Nissany while fighting for eighth.

Instead, Vips would have to wait until the following round in Mugello to get on the score sheet, claiming seventh in the Feature Race after gambling on the alternate tyre strategy to move up the order. A day later and Vips would stand on the podium for the first time after starting on the front row, which saw Vips engage Artem Markelov in a bruising duel for third after both were passed early on by Christian Lundgaard and Louis Delétraz. Unfortunately for Vips he would have a more inauspicious run at the following round in Sochi, causing a first corner collision with Delétraz which left the Estonian racer out of the race.

After an anonymous run to eighteenth in the 2020 Sochi Sprint Race, Vips was replaced by the fit-again Gelael for the rest of 2020. Come the end of the season, however, the Estonian racer had out-scored the Indonesian racer, and was left in sixteenth place in the Championship.

Hitech Hopes: 2021
Vips would test for Hitech Grand Prix at the 2020 Bahrain Post-Season Test, who were widely expected to sign both Vips and fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson whom had also test for them in Bahrain. The duo were subsequently unveiled as Hitech's drivers for the 2021 season on 15 January 2021, with both retaining their Red Bull backing for the campaign.

Full Formula Two Record
Shown below are a series of tables outlining 's career in Formula Two in statistical form.

Formula Two Entries
The list below includes all of the teams and cars, as well as overall finishing positions for during their F2 career:

Career Results
Below is a table showing 's full Formula Two record.


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