Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) is a British and Irish former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

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 The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

champion

Marcos Marcos may refer to: People with the given name ''Marcos'' *Marcos (given name) * Marcos family Sports ;Surnamed * Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century) * Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer * Né ...

, 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

Ralph Firman British F3 1995 Silverstone

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 Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972) is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, six 12 Hours of Sebring class wi ...

. However, he continued in the championship in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

and captured the title at his second attempt.

Macau Grand Prix controversy

Firman won the prestigious

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

in 1996 under controversial circumstances. At the end of round 1, Firman finished ahead of German Formula 3 champion

Jarno Trulli Jarno Trulli (; born 13 July 1974) is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Trulli won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix with Renault in Formula One, Renault. He regularly competed in Formula ...

. 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 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

for the season at the

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

team, alongside

Giancarlo Fisichella Giancarlo "Giano" Fisichella (; born 14 January 1973), also known as Fisico or Fisi, is an Italian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Fisichella won three Formula One Grands Prix across 14 seasons. Bo ...

. He participated in 14 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the

2003 Australian Grand Prix The 2003 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2003 Foster's Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 9 March 2003 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. The race was won by McLaren driver David Coulthard, who took the 13th and fi ...

. 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 The 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix (formally the Marlboro Magyar Nagydíj 2003) was a Formula One motor race held on 24 August 2003 at the Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest County, Pest, Hungary. It was the thirteenth round of the 2003 Formula One season. ...

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

Ralph Firman 2010 Super GT Fuji 400km qualify Super Lap

Firman has also competed in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

, 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 Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

GT500 class championship with the

Aguri Suzuki is a Japanese former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Suzuki entered 88 Formula One Grands Prix, achieving a best result of third at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, becoming the first Asian driver t ...

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

Complete British Formula 3 results

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

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

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

References

External links

*
GP EncyclopediaRFR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Firman, Ralph 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Norwich Irish racing drivers Irish Formula One drivers Jordan Formula One drivers A1 Team Ireland drivers Formula Nippon drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Super GT drivers Karting World Championship drivers People educated at Gresham's School Status Grand Prix drivers A1 Grand Prix drivers Nakajima Racing drivers Team Aguri drivers Paul Stewart Racing drivers