You probably remember Ralph Firman for his sole F1 season with Jordan, but either side of that he was a champion in both Formula Nippon and SuperGT. Here's an in-depth look back at Firman's Japan exploits:
Two decades ago this month, Firman scored his first and only point in F1 with an eighth-place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix. It turned out to be the high point of a tough campaign with Jordan, which by now was in its death throes ahead of being purchased by the Midland Group in early 2005.
It’s a shame, therefore, that Firman’s illustrious career in the Land of the Rising Sun hasn’t been documented, at least in English, as well as it might have been. The highlight of the season for Firman was a second-place finish at Sugo, with a smattering of other top-six finishes leaving him eighth in the standings and fourth among Reynard chassis users that made up the bulk of the grid. Pedro de la Rosa meanwhile took an utterly dominant title using the less-favoured Lola.
“The Lola was the best car in 1997, but in 1998 [sole supplier] Bridgestone changed their tyres and Reynard was the car to have,” remembers Firman. “Both of them produced excellent chassis, but no matter how good your car is, it always comes down to the one thing touching the road, which is the tyres. It happens often in motorsport, that a new tyre compound or construction comes along that just suits one car better than another.
Firman also has high praise for Motoyama, who would go on to win four titles in Formula Nippon but never drove in F1 beyond a Friday practice session for Jordan at Suzuka in 2003 and another test for Renault. “He was one of the best drivers I ever raced again,” Firman says. “He was exceptionally good in Japan and he probably deserved a chance in Formula 1. Those two years were some of the toughest battles I had in my career.
Sadly for Firman, he had the misfortune of joining Jordan in its least competitive season up to that point, with the Ford-powered EJ13 receiving virtually no development all year amid a lack of finance. Eighth at Barcelona was as good as it would get all year for Firman as his season was compromised further by numerous car failures, one of which caused a huge crash in practice at the Hungaroring that would sideline him for two races.
“Dome, which was running Aguri’s team, had a driver who wasn’t performing [Jonathan Cochet], they wanted to get rid of him and they asked me if I’d like to race again,” explains Firman. “I flew out and did a test at TI Aida [now Okayama] and we made a contract on the spot. I was sharing the car with Daisuke Ito, who was extremely quick and a great team-mate. We had very similar driving styles, which was one of the keys to our success.
The following year proved a very different story. Honda’s NSX-GT was the dominant car following further engine and chassis upgrades, scoring six poles out of nine and five wins. Three of those wins were scored by Firman and Ito, who became the first pairing to ever win the GT500 title with a race to spare, a feat only replicated once in all the years since.
Asked to explain the team’s slump, Firman reveals: “I don’t think it was until the final season [in 2013] that I realised that they had actually kept the same car all the way through. We did all the pre-season testing in 2010 missing some stays on the front of the chassis. They only discovered they should have been on the car the day before the first race. We also had a big crash in the first race [in 2010], and they didn’t replace the rear adaptor, they just fixed it.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Simon Jordan grills Howard Webb on why he didn't show when VAR got it wrongSimon Jordan quizzed Howard Webb on why clips of wrongly called VAR incidents were not made available to the public. The PGMOL chief refereeing officer appeared on talkSPORT on Tuesday morning to e…
Read more »
Desperate parents are stealing baby formula to keep their children fedThe problem with having an in-demand, unaffordable product is that people will look for alternative ways of finding it. A black market in baby formula has sprung up and some parents have become increasingly desperate.
Read more »
Is this driver now Lawson's biggest Super Formula title threat?Liam Lawson\u2019s race engineer feels that Sho Tsuboi is now the Red Bull junior\u2019s biggest threat in the Super Formula title battle, rather than Mugen team-mate Tomoki Nojiri.
Read more »
Formula E CEO Reigle to step down from roleFormula E CEO Jamie Reigle will step down from his role at the end of the current season, with his replacement to be announced in the coming weeks.
Read more »
Formula E CEO Reigle to step down from roleFormula E CEO Jamie Reigle will step down from his role at the end of the current season, with his replacement to be announced in the coming weeks. Full story ⬇️
Read more »