Rogue Profile of Ralph Firman

Although Firman had time to aquatint himself with the track in Fridays test session,
he was still lacking track time when it came his turn to qualify on Friday afternoon.
He drove gallantly, fighting chronic understeer until the final sector of the
lap where he elegantly slid off.

As his EJ13′s left-rear wheels slid over the grass the car momentarily snapped
away but F1′s James bond look-alike caught the car with a smooth dose of opposite
lock, just as the EJ13′s traction control cut power to the rear wheels. Thanks
to some "Q Branch" wizardry Firman kept himself out of the wall, his
lap time had been stretched but it was a case of "shaken and not stirred!"

"I am very disappointed but it was my first time qualifying the car
and I was still learning a lot about the circuit. What counts is Sunday,"
he explained. "I was driving as hard as I could to find the limit
and pushed a little too hard when I was picking up understeer towards the end
of the lap. The tyres had started to go off and we’ll have to look at that and
understand what was happening so that we can make the most of tomorrow."

Ralph Firman’s inaugural Grand Prix came to its inevitable end on lap seven. Firman
was seemingly talented but in true rogues style secured his drive with a hefty
"golden handshake" after tracking Eddie Jordan down to a sunglasses
shop in the Caribbean before Christmas that year.

Firman claimed to be driving within himself which seemed all the more impressive
given that he had gained to places on the opening lap and worked himself up to
eight by lap six. On lap seven his Firman, his car speared off the track at turn
five, almost following the path taken by Barrichello on the previous lap. The
Jordan narrowly missing the Ferrari’s wayward rear wing on it’s "suspension
destroying" journey. There were rumours of oil on the track, or it then again
could have been a magnetic. One thing was for sure, Firman was out but he could
not explain why.

"I was not pushing one hundred percent when the accident happened.
I was well within myself but then suddenly had major oversteer, lost the car and
hit the barrier. Rubens went off there and I understand there was a possibility
of some oil on the track but I honestly don’t know," he explained. "It
was going well before then, I was cautious over the first few laps and this is
an unfortunate outcome. The team did a very good job to make the right call on
tyre choice, so it’s naturally very disappointing not to finish."

Ralph Firman finished in a lowly seventeenth place in Friday Qualifying. The young
Irishman made a mistake on his flying lap that saw his EJ13 brush the kerb in
Variante Alta, sending the car sliding across the track.

Although Firman kept the Jordan off the "green stuff" he had lost
a huge amount of time and he vented his fury by gesticulating and beating his
steering wheel.

"It was going reasonably well but I made a mistake at the chicane, I just
hit the kerb too hard and got the car a bit oversteery," he explained.
"I had a productive morning though and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, I
think its going to be a good weekend."

After ruining his lap in Friday’s qualifying session Ralf Firman blotted his copybook
for a second time on Saturday afternoon. Running fourth on the greasy track, the
young Englishman made a simple error.

Firman had been building a reputation for over driving his car, trying to manhandle
it in to action rather than caressing it gently and smoothly. Entering Tamburello,
Firman was too late on the brake and locked his left right front tyre in dramatic
fashion. Firman would now have to cope with a flat spotted tyre for the first
stint of the race so he had to maximise the rest of his lap.

The real surprise was not the result, it was the speed at which it came. Coming
out of Tamburello Firman was too keen keep to make up for his mistake and ran
wide over the grass loosing even more time. The young rookie driver was disappointed
with his result.

"It was a promising day before qualifying," he said. "But
you only get one lap and I made a mistake at the first corner, locking up the
front wheel and then had a big flat spot on the tyre. From that point on the rest
of the lap was very difficult. It should be okay tomorrow."