Ralph Firman

Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) is an Irish former racing driver who last raced under an Irish licence. His father, Ralph Firman Sr., co-founded the Van Diemen racecar constructor with Ross Ambrose, father of V8 Supercars champion Marcos, then more recently founded RFR. Firman won the 2002 Formula Nippon Championship, as well as the 2007 Super GT Series. He was also runner up in the 2002, 2005 and 2009 Super GT Series. He is married to Aldís Kristín Árnadóttir, an Icelandic UK-educated lawyer. Firman'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 Firman won the prestigious Macau Grand Prix in 1996 despite crashing out of the race. 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 after breaking his front wing. He then crashed at the hairpin corner, blocking the track. The race was stopped as a result, and the results declared at the end of 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 secured a seat in Formula One for the season at the Jordan team, 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. This point was the first for a Republic of Ireland driver since Derek Daly in 1982. He was injured in a huge crash during practice for the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix which forced him to sit out that and the next race, in which he was replaced by Zsolt Baumgartner.

In November 2003, Firman drove a Jordan-Ford EJ13 at Macau's Guia Circuit as part of the Macau Grand Prix's 50th anniversary celebrations, the first time that a contemporary F1 machine had been seen in action around the tight and tricky Guia circuit. Firman clocked an impressive 1:59.4 seconds lap, 13 seconds quicker than F3 poleman Fabio Carbone managed on the same day.

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 Firman 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.

Retirement from racing Firman retired from racing in 2013, and now runs a British engineering company.

Racing career

Career summary Season Series Team Races Poles Wins FLaps Podiums Points Position 1993 Formula Vauxhall Junior ? ? 9 11 ? ? ? ? 1994 Formula Vauxhall Lotus ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4th 1995 British Formula Three Championship Paul Stewart Racing 18 9 6 4 9 1762nd Masters of Formula 3 Paul Stewart Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 10th Macau Grand Prix San Miguel Paul Stewart Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A NC Formula One Marlboro McLaren MercedesTest driver 1996 British Formula Three Championship Paul Stewart Racing 15 4 3 4 8 188 1st Macau Grand Prix San Miguel Paul Stewart Racing 1 0 1 0 1 N/A 1st Masters of Formula 3 Paul Stewart Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A NC 1997 Formula Nippon Championship Team TMS 10 0 0 0 1 12 8th All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship Team TMS 4 0 0 0 0 4 24th Macau Grand Prix San Miguel Paul Stewart Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A NC 1998 Formula Nippon Championship Team Nova 9 0 0 0 2 13 8th 1999 Formula Nippon Championship Team Nova 10 1 1 2 3 21 4th All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship Team Taeivon Ralliart 7 0 0 0 2 42 6th 2000 Formula Nippon Championship Team Taeivon Ralliart 10 0 0 0 1 9 9th All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship Toyota Team Sard 7 0 0 0 1 25 12th 2001 Formula Nippon Championship Nakajima Racing 10 1 2 1 3 29 4th 2002 Formula Nippon Championship Nakajima Racing 10 2 4 1 8 62 1st All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship Nakajima Racing 8 0 3 0 3 742nd 2003 Formula One Jordan 14 0 0 0 0 1 19th 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans Racing for Holland 1 0 0 0 0 N/A NC 2005 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 8 0 2 0 1 612nd 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix Ireland 16 0 0 2 1 68 8th 2006 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 9 0 1 0 2 68 7th 2007 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 9 0 3 0 4 91 1st 2007-08 A1 Grand Prix Ireland 2 0 0 0 0 8 6th 2008 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 9 0 0 0 3 49 8th 2009 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 9 0 2 0 5 812nd 2010 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 7 0 1 0 1 29 11th 2012 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 8 0 0 0 0 12 16th 2013 Super GT Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 8 0 1 0 1 31 11th

Complete British Formula 3 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DC Pts 1995 Paul Stewart Racing Mugen SIL SIL THR THR DON SIL SIL DON DON OUL BRH BRH SNE PEM PEMSIL SIL THR 2nd 176 1996 Paul Stewart Racing Mugen SIL SIL THR DON BRH BRH OUL DON SIL THR SNE SNE PEM PEM ZAN ZAN SIL 1st 188

Complete Formula Nippon results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points 1997 Team TMS SUZ MIN FUJ SUZ SUG FUJ MIN MOT FUJ SUZ 8th 12 1998 Team Nova SUZ MIN FUJ MOT SUZ SUG FUJ MIN FUJ SUZ 7th 13 1999 Team Nova SUZ MOT MIN FUJ SUZ SUG FUJ MIN MOT SUZ 4th 21 2000 Team Nova SUZ MOT MIN FUJ SUZ SUG MOT FUJ MIN SUZ 9th 9 2001 Nakajima Racing SUZ MOT MIN FUJ SUZ SUG FUJ MIN MOT SUZ 4th 29 2002 Nakajima Racing SUZ FUJ MIN SUZ MOT SUG FUJ MIN MOT SUZ 1st 62

Complete Formula One results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Pts Jordan Ford Jordan EJ13 Ford V10 AUS MAL BRA SMR ESP AUT MON CAN EUR FRA GBR GER HUN ITA USA JPN 19th 1

Complete World Series by Nissan results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 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) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Points Ref 2005–06 Ireland GBRSPR GBRFEA GERSPR GERFEA PORSPR PORFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA UAESPR UAEFEA RSASPR RSAFEA IDNSPR IDNFEA MEXSPR MEXFEA USASPR USAFEA CHNSPR CHNFEA 8th 68 2007–08 NEDSPR NEDFEA CZESPR CZEFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA ZHUSPR ZHUFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA RSASPR RSAFEA MEXSPR MEXFEA SHASPR SHAFEA GBRSPR GBRSPR 6th 94