(born
May 20 1975 in
Norwich ,
Norfolk ) is a
Racing Driver from the
United Kingdom , who now races under
Irish citizenship (his mother Angela is Irish) and an Irish-issued racing licence. Earlier in his career he raced under a British licence. His father,
Ralph Firman Sr. , founded the
Van Diemen racecar constructor.
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Educated at
Gresham's School between
1988 and
1993 , Firman went straight into motor racing on leaving school and won the
1996 British Formula Three Championship , at his second attempt. He also won the prestigious
Macau Grand Prix during this year. He then moved to
Japan , culminating in the 2002
Formula Nippon championship, before returning to
Europe . He participated in 14
Formula One grands prix, debuting on
March 9 ,
2003 . He scored 1 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 .
Firman has also competed in the
Le Mans 24 Hours , and was an official
Test Driver for the
A1 Grand Prix series in August 2004.
Ralph's sister
Natasha is also a racing driver.
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.
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