Jordan rookie Ralph Firman is happy to be a 'Man Friday' of Formula One. The 27-year-old believes the decision to opt for an extra couple of hours of practice on the Fridays of race weekends this season will be a huge boost in his maiden season.
Firman knows very few of the circuits because he has been racing in Japan for the past six seasons and the extra time will give him more of a chance to learn the tracks before the new qualifying format.
"The extra two hours are going to be a massive advantage to the team and for me as a rookie," said Firman, who will make his belated bow in Melbourne on March 7th-9th.
"It is going to be invaluable, tremendous. It will give me a few more laps in an F1 car and a few more laps to learn the circuits which takes away the issue of not knowing them.
"But I am looking forward to one lap qualifying because I think that will suit me."
Firman never gave up hope of finally breaking into F1 despite several years of toil in Japan before he won the Formula Nippon Championship last year.
The Norwich-born driver, who holds an Irish passport, had been forced to go to Japan because there were no opportunities to race in F3000 - the traditional stepping stone to F1 - despite winning the British and Macau F3 titles, where he beat the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli.
"It was very very hard," added 6ft 1in Firman. "You race to win and when you are not winning it's probably the worst thing you can do.
"I fought through that. It would have been easy to give up but I didn't, I just knuckled down because I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to drive in F1. That has been my dream ever since I was a kid."
Firman insists he is not fazed by the prospect of battling with team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, the Italian who is so highly regarded he beat five-time world champion Michael Schumacher to the drivers' driver award last season.
"I have always been quicker than my team-mate so it is going to be an interesting year," added Firman, who will have had just six days testing in the EJ13 before the first race.
"He is a great driver and I am looking forward to learning a lot from him and hopefully going quicker and quicker."