Ralph Firman

Ralph Firman
Ralph Firman
	Firman in 2008
Nationality	British; Irish
Born	Ralph David Firman Jr.; 20 May 1975 (age 49); Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom
Active years
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
Years
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2004
Teams	Racing for Holland
Best finish	NC
Class wins	0

Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) is a British-born former racing driver who raced 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 V8 Supercars champion 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

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 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. 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.^[3]

Post-Formula One

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.

Retirement from racing

Firman retired from racing in 2013, and now runs a British engineering company.^[4]

Racing career

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Poles	Wins	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
1995	British Formula Three Championship	Paul Stewart Racing	18	9	6	4	9	176	2nd
	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 Mercedes	Test 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
1999	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
2000	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
2002	All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship	Nakajima Racing	8	0	3	0	3	74	2nd
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	61	2nd
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	81	2nd
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
Sources:^[4]^[5]^[6]

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 1 1	SIL 2 1	THR 1 Ret	THR 2 2	DON Ret	SIL 2	SIL 3	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 1	OUL 9	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 1	SNE Ret	PEM 1 1	PEM 2 7	SIL 1 DSQ	SIL 2 12	THR 7	2nd	176
1996	Paul Stewart Racing	Mugen	SIL 1 4	SIL 2 2	THR 3	DON DNS	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 1	OUL 1	DON 2	SIL 2	THR 2	SNE 1 6	SNE 2 C	PEM 1 13	PEM 2 5	ZAN 1 5	ZAN 2 4	SIL 4		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 Ret	MIN 4	FUJ 15	SUZ 6	SUG 2	FUJ 13	MIN Ret	MOT 5	FUJ Ret	SUZ 11	8th	12
1998	Team Nova	SUZ 12	MIN Ret	FUJ Ret	MOT 14	SUZ Ret	SUG 2	FUJ C	MIN 4	FUJ 3	SUZ 7	7th	13
1999	Team Nova	SUZ Ret	MOT 3	MIN 2	FUJ 9	SUZ Ret	SUG 6	FUJ 10	MIN 9	MOT 8	SUZ 1	4th	21
2000	Team Nova	SUZ Ret	MOT 11	MIN Ret	FUJ 6	SUZ 7	SUG 2	MOT 10	FUJ 13	MIN 5	SUZ Ret	9th	9
2001	Nakajima Racing	SUZ 5	MOT Ret	MIN 2	FUJ 6	SUZ Ret	SUG Ret	FUJ 7	MIN 8	MOT 1	SUZ 1	4th	29
2002	Nakajima Racing	SUZ 1	FUJ 2	MIN Ret	SUZ 1	MOT 9	SUG 1	FUJ 2	MIN 2	MOT 1	SUZ 3	1st	62
Source:^[4]

Complete JGTC/Super GT results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
1997	Team TMS	Porsche 911 GT2	GT500	SUZ 13	FUJ 7	SEN 13	FUJ 13	MIN	SUG DNQ				24th	4
1999	Team Taeivon Ralliart	Mitsubishi FTO	GT300	SUZ 2	FUJ Ret	SUG 5	MIN Ret	FUJ 3	TAI 8	MOT 7			6th	42
2000	Toyota Team SARD	Toyota Supra	GT500	MOT 10	FUJ Ret	SUG 6	FUJ 2	TAI Ret	MIN 8	SUZ 16			12th	25
2002	Nakajima Racing	Honda NSX	GT500	TAI 1	FUJ 11	SUG Ret	SEP 1	FUJ 12	MOT 14	MIN 6	SUZ 1		2nd	74
2005	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX	GT500	OKA 4	FUJ 12	SEP 2	SUG 6	MOT 16	FUJ 8	AUT 1	SUZ 12		2nd	61
2006	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX	GT500	SUZ 3	OKA 7	FUJ 8	SEP 1	SUG 8	SUZ 6	MOT 15	AUT 11	FUJ 14	7th	68
2007	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX	GT500	SUZ 12	OKA 1	FUJ 9	SEP 6	SUG 1	SUZ 2	MOT 12	AUT 1	FUJ 8	1st	94
2008	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX	GT500	SUZ 14	OKA 3	FUJ Ret	SEP 11	SUG 15	SUZ 13	MOT 2	AUT 3	FUJ 12	8th	49
2009	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda NSX	GT500	OKA 3	SUZ 14	FUJ 3	SEP 3	SUG 14	SUZ 12	FUJ 1	AUT 4	MOT 1	2nd	81
2010	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda HSV-010 GT	GT500	SUZ Ret	OKA 6	FUJ 11	SEP 11	SUG 12	SUZ 1	FUJ C	MOT 7		11th	29
2012	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda HSV-010 GT	GT500	OKA 6	FUJ Ret	SEP 12	SUG Ret	SUZ 7	FUJ 9	AUT 11	MOT 13		16th	12
2013	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda HSV-010 GT	GT500	OKA 9	FUJ 8	SEP 8	SUG 1	SUZ 12	FUJ 8	AUT 14	MOT 15		11th	31
Sources:^[6]^[7]

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
2003	Jordan Ford	Jordan EJ13	Ford V10	AUS Ret	MAL 10	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 8	AUT 11	MON 12	CAN Ret	EUR 11	FRA 15	GBR 13	GER Ret	HUN WD	ITA	USA Ret	JPN 14	19th	1
Sources:^[5]^[8]

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
Sources:^[5]^[9]

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	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR 9	GER FEA 6	POR SPR 19	POR FEA 3	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR 7	MYS FEA 9	UAE SPR 4	UAE FEA Ret	RSA SPR 4	RSA FEA Ret	IDN SPR 6	IDN FEA Ret	MEX SPR Ret	MEX FEA Ret	USA SPR 5	USA FEA 6	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	8th	68	^[10]
2007–08	Ireland	NED SPR 8	NED FEA 6	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	ZHU SPR	ZHU FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	SHA SPR	SHA FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR			6th	94	^[11]
Source:^[4]

References

^ RFR – In development: the 2010 RFR F2000/FC – Ralph Firman Racing
^ "Firman set to join Jordan F1". Irish Examiner. 3 February 2003.
^ "Firman breaks Macau lap record". Crash Net. 14 November 2003.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Ralph Firman". Motor Sport. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Ralph Firman Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Ralph Firman jr". Driver Database. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Complete Archive of Ralph Firman". Racing Sports Cars. pp. 2, 3. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Ralph Firman – Involvement". StatsF1. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Ralph Firman". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Ralph Firman – 2005 A1 Grand Prix Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Ralph Firman – 2007 A1 Grand Prix Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Oliver Gavin	British Formula 3 Championship Champion 1996	Succeeded by Jonny Kane
Preceded by Ralf Schumacher	Macau Grand Prix Winner 1996	Succeeded by Soheil Ayari
Preceded by Satoshi Motoyama	Formula Nippon Champion 2002	Succeeded by Satoshi Motoyama
Preceded by Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer	Super GT GT500 Champion 2007 With: Daisuke Itō	Succeeded by Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer
Awards
Preceded by Dario Franchitti	McLaren Autosport BRDC Award 1993	Succeeded by Jamie Davies