Vips will drive the #30 car that Jack Harvey vacated for the final three races of the season, as Bobby Rahal’s team evaluates talent for its 2024 line-up.
The 23-year-old is a three-time Formula 2 race winner and a part of the Red Bull Junior Team between 2018 and 2022, but he was dropped after he used a racial slur on a Twitch livestream – just a month after making his F1 free practice debut at the Spanish Grand Prix.
He drove an IndyCar for the first time in October 2022 at Sebring in a test for RLL and again at Barber in March of this year. He has also performed static simulator testing for the team during this season.
“I’m very pleased for the team to enter Juri in the Portland and Laguna Seca races,” said Rahal.
“Clearly, he was the lead Red Bull Junior driver a few years ago and exhibited a lot of talent, which we saw during the two tests he ran with us so we’re looking forward to seeing what he can do on a race weekend.”
Vips will drive this weekend at Portland and at the Laguna Seca season finale a week later and is expected to feature in the team’s plans next season.
His primary target is to ensure the #30 car finishes in the top 22 in entrants’ points to qualify for next year’s ‘Winners Circle’ program, which is worth almost $1m to each entry.
Source: Autosport