🇮🇪 Ralph Firman

Ralph Firman is a retired established professional driver who raced single-seater and multiclass endurance cars across seven seasons from 1996 to 2013. He competed in Formula 1 for Jordan in 2003, Formula 3 Macau between 1996 and 1998, and spent his longest tenure in Japan's Super GT championship with Autobacs Racing Team Aguri from 2008 to 2013, where he drove the GT500 class in purpose-built cars shared with co-drivers across the multiclass endurance grid.[1]

Firman took five wins and 12 podiums across 58 starts. He won twice in Formula 3 Macau in his early career, finished 14th in the Formula 1 championship in a single season with Jordan, and claimed four wins and 10 podiums over his six seasons in Super GT, including a championship title in 2007. His final season in Super GT came in 2013, when he took one win across eight rounds and finished 11th in the championship standings.[2]

In Super GT, Firman raced regularly alongside established professionals including Ronnie Quintarelli, a three-time GT500 champion, and André Couto, a GT300 title-holder, with whom he remained closely matched. He also finished ahead of Naoki Yamamoto, later a multiple Super GT and Super Formula champion, on six occasions. His single Formula 1 appearance came in a field that included Mark Webber, an elite professional who would go on to win the WEC LMP1 championship; Firman finished ahead of him once.