Ralph Firman Jr.
| Ralph Firman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Firman in 2008
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| Nationality |
 Irish |
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| Born |
20 May 1975 Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom |
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| Formula One World Championship career | |
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| 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 | |
|---|---|
| Years | 2004 |
| Teams | Racing for Holland |
| Best finish | NC |
| Class wins | 0 |
Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) 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 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.
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.
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.
Firman then moved to Japan, culminating in the 2002 Formula Nippon championship, before returning to Europe.
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.
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