The signing of Ralph Firman as a Jordan driver for, at least, the 2003 season, is the culmination of five months of rumour, speculation and conjecture, most of it conducted on these pages and the pages of The Irish Times sports section. Justin Hynes reports.
For the uninitiated it has been an object lesson in how Formula One works. There is a perception that F1 drivers are chosen because they are very good at what they do and nothing more.
It's true, they are extraordinarily good at racing F1 cars and Firman is in that category, fast and extremely talented.
But that's not enough. In F1 money talks and talent often walks. Also, timing is everything. Firman put himself in the frame by winning the 2002 Formula Nippon title. This landed him a one-day test at Honda-powered BAR. He acquitted himself admirably, but Takuma Sato's return to BAR closed that door but did open the possibility of a move to Jordan.
All that stood in his way were Eddie Irvine, Felipe Massa, BAR tester Anthony Davidson and anybody else you cared to mention. Before he could take any of those on, however, he would have to pull together $5 million in sponsorship.
Cue a frantic two months as his management pulled together a private sponsor, money, apparently, from Ford Ireland and during which Benson & Hedges were convinced that he could front a marketing campaign as well as Eddie Irvine.
Davidson was seen off largely by Firman's solid BAR test and by Davidson himself, who failed to impress paddock pundits in two races with Minardi last season.
Irvine and Massa were different stories. Irvine bowed out, perhaps prematurely, when Massa was seen to gain the upper hand in the race for the seat. Massa's tilt, too, came to nothing, however, as it has been rumoured that his financial package fell apart at the last.
Thus Firman was the last man standing and, combining a racing CV as voluminous as Eddie Irvine's little black book and the right package at the right time, he had secured the drive.
The moral of Firman's story is that talent alone is not enough in F1, especially not in these straitened times.
Whither now for Irvine though? So far it seems that he has no plans other than to relax and enjoy the fruits of his labour. Whether he comes back to F1 in 2004 is open to question - the answer must be that it is doubtful. However, so far he seems determined to enjoy some time off.
Not so for Firman, who will make his Jordan test debut in Valencia next week. Then the hard work begins. Despite the nightmarish blend of money and motivation that it takes to reach F1, it is the easy part. Staying in Formula One twice is hard.