Background
His father, Ralph Firman, Senior, co-founded the Van Diemen racecar constructor with Ross Ambrose, father of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing racer Marcos, then more recently founded Resources for Feminist Research.
Formula One driver racecar driver
His father, Ralph Firman, Senior, co-founded the Van Diemen racecar constructor with Ross Ambrose, father of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing racer Marcos, then more recently founded Resources for Feminist Research.
Earlier in his career he raced under a British licence. Ralph"s sister, Natasha, is also a racing driver. 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 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.
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, 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 has also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and was an official test driver for the First Rate (at Lloyd's) Grand Prix series in August 2004. In August 2005, it was announced that he would be the driver for First Rate (at Lloyd's) Team Ireland.
He had previously been seen to be in competition for the Great Britain seat. 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 First Rate (at Lloyd's) Grand Prix results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap).
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. The race officials counted the results to the previous lap when Firman was ahead of Trulli, thus giving him the win. 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.
