Ralph Firman

Ralph Firman
Ralph Firman in 2008
Nationality	Irish
Born	(1975-05-20) 20 May 1975 Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom
Formula One World Championship career Active years 2003 Teams Jordan Entries 15 (14 starts) Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Career points 1 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First entry 2003 Australian Grand Prix Last entry 2003 Japanese Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career Participating years 2004 Teams Racing for Holland Best finish NC Class wins 0

Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975 in Norwich, Norfolk, England) is an English-born racing driver who races under Irish citizenship (his mother Angela is from Ireland) and an Irish-issued racing licence. Earlier in his career he raced under a British licence. His father, Ralph Firman, Sr., co-founded the Van Diemen^[1] racecar constructor with Ross Ambrose, father of NASCAR racer Marcos, then more recently founded RFR. He is married to Aldís Kristín Árnadóttir, an Icelandic UK-educated lawyer. Ralph's sister, Natasha, is also a racing driver.

Career

Formula Three

Firman driving for Paul Stewart Racing at Silverstone during the 1995 British Formula 3 Championship season.

Educated at Gresham's School between 1988 and 1993, Firman went straight into motor racing on leaving school. Despite leading much of the 1995 British F3 championship, he lost the title at the final round to Oliver Gavin. However, he continued in the championship in 1996 and captured the title at his second attempt.

Macau Grand Prix controversy

Firman won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix in 1996 under controversial circumstances. At the end of round 1, Firman finished ahead of German Formula 3 champion Jarno Trulli. In round 2, he was overtaken by Trulli on the last lap. Firman was running with a broken front wing. Just as Jarno Trulli was on the way to victory, Firman crashed at the hairpin corner, blocked the track and caused a red flag. The race officials counted the results to the previous lap when Firman was ahead of Trulli, thus giving him the win.

Formula Nippon

Firman then moved to Japan, culminating in the 2002 Formula Nippon championship, before returning to Europe.

Formula One

Firman driving for Jordan at the 2003 French GP.

Firman secured a seat in Formula One for the 2003 season at the Jordan team,^[2] alongside Giancarlo Fisichella. He participated in 14 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the 2003 Australian Grand Prix. He scored one championship point, in the 2003 Spanish Grand Prix. He was injured in a huge crash during practice for the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix which forced him to sit out this and the next race, in which he was replaced by Zsolt Baumgartner.

Post-Formula One

Firman driving the Honda HSV-010 GT for ARTA at the 2010 Super GT Fuji 400km race.

Firman has also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and was an official test driver for the A1 Grand Prix series in August 2004.

In August 2005, it was announced that he would be the driver for A1 Team Ireland. He had previously been seen to be in competition for the Great Britain seat.

In 2007, Firman, along with Daisuke Ito, won the Japan Super GT GT500 class championship with the Aguri Suzuki co-owned ARTA team. Firman and Ito won the championship before the final race of the season, a first in the series' competitive history.

Racing career

Complete Formula Nippon results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete JGTC/Super GT results

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2004	Racing for Holland	Tom Coronel Justin Wilson	Dome S101-Judd	LMP1	313	DNF	DNF

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ralph Firman.

• Official website
• GP Encyclopedia
• RFR