Do I need "| xargs -n 1" to get around xargs' -I side-effect?

I was suprised to discover this:

$ echo 1 2 3 4 5 | xargs -n 1 echo
1
2
3
4
5

$ echo 1 2 3 4 5 | xargs -n 1 -I FOO echo FOO
1 2 3 4 5

That is, using the -I flag has this side effect:

Also, unquoted blanks do not terminate input items; instead the separator is the newline character.

So the workaround I see is:

$ echo 1 2 3 4 5 | xargs -n 1 | xargs -n 1 -I FOO echo FOO
1
2
3
4
5

Is there a better workaround?

My actual command line looks like this:

echo 102DRIFT 103DRIFT 104DRIFT 105DRIFT | xargs -n 1 | xargs -n 1 -I _DIR_ python process.py /SDcard/DCIM/_DIR_/ MyTrace.gpx 10

(Ubuntu Trusty if relevant.)