Gary Paffett

Gary James Paffett (born 24 March 1981 in Bromley) is a British former racing driver, motorsport executive and Racing Director who currently works at CUPRA Kiro in Formula E. He also works with the British Touring Car Championship team Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport, helping founder and manager Mark Blundell.

Having become a household name in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), following fifteen years in the series and two championship wins, Paffett moved onto Formula E for the 2018/19 championship, after it was announced in 2017 that Mercedes would no longer be taking part in DTM. Paffett was also a test driver for the Williams Formula One team, having previously worked in a similar role at McLaren for a number of years, during the team's successful title winning years. Paffett progressed through the ranks of karting and junior formulae in the United Kingdom, winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1999. He now lives in Ousden, Suffolk, England.

Racing career

1993 to 1999: Early Years In 1993, Paffett joined the British Cadet Championships and earned himself a respectable third place. A year later he moved to British Junior TKM Championship and finished second overall. In 1995, he won the British Junior TKM Championship and also second place in the Junior ICA European Championship. Successes continued into 1996, winning the McLaren Mercedes Karting Champion of the Future award and also second in the British Junior ICA Championship. The next year, he moved into single-seaters, winning the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series, picking up the best newcomer's award in that series in the process. In 1998, he was Formula Vauxhall Junior Class B Champion with thirteen poles and thirteen wins, dominating every race of the season. He also set a track record which had never before been set by any "B" class car. He got promoted to the Formula Vauxhall Junior and won the championship with two track records, four wins, five fastest laps, three pole positions. At the season's end, he was awarded the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year award.

Formula Three Moving up to Formula Three, Paffett competed in the Scholarship class of the British F3 Championship, becoming champion with twelve wins, thirteen fastest laps and thirteen pole positions. In 2001, moved overseas to the German F3 Championship racing with Keke Rosberg's race team, finishing sixth overall. Remaining in the series for 2002, he dominated the field winning the championship without ever losing the lead.

DTM Paffett won his third DTM race in succession, by winning the season-opener at Hockenheim in 2010. For 2003, Paffett signed to drive for the new Brand Motorsport team in F3000, but the team withdrew from the series leaving Paffett and his team-mate Nicolas Minassian without drives. Mercedes contacted him and signed him to drive in the DTM with Rosberg's Mercedes AMG team in a year-old car, eventually finishing 11th overall. A year later, he was runner up with an up-to-date AMG-Mercedes C-Class and the HWA team taking four wins and one pole position. He was then champion the following year with five wins and four pole positions. In 2007, Paffett returned to the DTM in a 2006 specification race car for the Persson Motorsport team alongside his McLaren F1 testing duties. At the second round at Oschersleben, Paffett became the first driver in the history of the series to win in a year old car. After a further year in older machinery, he was promoted back to the current Mercedes model for 2009, and finished runner-up in the championship, behind Timo Scheider.

2018 DTM Season In 2017, Mercedes announced it would leave DTM after the 2018 season. After an opening race win from Paffett at the Hockenheimring and a second-place finish in the second race at Lausitzring, Paffett went on to win the fifth round race at Circuit Zandvoort. These three wins alongside three second-place finishes and four third-place finishes proved to be enough to Paffett and Mercedes the Championship title in their final DTM season.

Formula One Paffett testing for McLaren at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in December 2008.

In December 2005, it was announced that he would not be returning to the DTM series to defend his title but instead would test full-time for McLaren-Mercedes during the 2006 season alongside Pedro de la Rosa. After the departure of Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari, it was speculated that he may have been in contention for a 2007 race seat in the team alongside World Champion Fernando Alonso. However, due to the arrival of GP2 Champion, Lewis Hamilton, Paffett was overlooked for the drive.

Further to this, Paffett was released from his McLaren contract in October 2006, to search for better opportunities. It was widely speculated that he was likely to sign as a test driver at Honda, but Christian Klien was signed instead. A few weeks later however, Paffett was re-signed by McLaren as the team's second test driver, alongside de la Rosa.

Paffett publicly stated that he was looking for a Formula One race seat for 2008, and was linked with the abortive Prodrive F1 project for that season. However, Prodrive failed to make it to the grid so Paffett stayed with McLaren as a test driver. Paffett was signed as Force India's reserve driver for the 2012 Australian Grand Prix as regular reserve driver Jules Bianchi was unavailable due to Formula Renault 3.5 Series testing commitments. On 17 November 2014, it was announced that Paffett would leave McLaren at the end of the 2014 season. This coincided with McLaren's switch to Honda engines for 2015.

For 2016, Paffett signed on with Williams as a simulator driver, alongside his duties in DTM. Team deputy Claire Williams said: "We're delighted to have someone with Gary's experience join us at Williams. He is a highly professional racing driver and his level of testing knowledge, and ability to analyse data, will significantly help to drive forward development of the FW38 throughout the season."

Formula E

In the 2018–19 Formula E season, Paffett drove for the HWA Racelab Formula E team, together with the Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne. Marking a new adventure for Gary, following his fifteen legendary years in the German Touring Car Series, this season's Formula E championship, marked both Gary's and the HWA team's debut campaign in the 12-round all electric series. He finished the season 19th in the driver's standings after scoring points in Hong Kong, Paris and New York City. On 11 September 2019, it was announced that Paffett would be replaced by Nyck de Vries for the new Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team in the 2019–20 Formula E season. Paffett moved into a management role within the team, working as a sporting and technical advisor, while also being a test and reserve driver.

Racing record

Complete German Formula Three results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Formula 3000 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap). Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points 2003 Brand Motorsport IMO CAT A1R MON NÜR MAG SIL HOC HUN MNZ 29th 0

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap). Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts 2003 Team Rosberg AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM HOC ADR NÜR LAU NOR DON NÜR A1R ZAN HOC 11th 4 2004 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004 HOC EST ADR LAU NOR SHA NÜR OSC ZAN BRN HOC 2nd 57 2005 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2005 HOC LAU SPA BRN OSC NOR NÜR ZAN LAU IST HOC 1st 84 2007 Persson Motorsport AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2006 HOC OSC LAU BRH NOR MUG ZAN NÜR CAT HOC 9th 20.5 2008 Persson Motorsport AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2007 HOC OSC MUG LAU NOR ZAN NÜR BRH CAT BUG HOC 9th 13 2009 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009 HOC LAU NOR ZAN OSC NÜR BRH CAT DIJ HOC 2nd 59 2010 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009 HOC VAL LAU NOR NÜR ZAN BRH OSC HOC ADR SHA 2nd 67 2011 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009 HOC ZAN SPL LAU NOR NÜR BRH OSC VAL HOC 7th 25 2012 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse Coupé HOC LAU BRH SPL NOR NÜR ZAN OSC VAL HOC 2nd 145 2013 HWA Team AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse Coupé HOC BRH SPL LAU NOR MSC NÜR OSC ZAN HOC 6th 69 2014 HWA Team DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé HOC OSC HUN NOR MSC SPL NÜR LAU ZAN HOC 22nd 5 2015 ART Grand Prix DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé HOC1 HOC2 LAU1 LAU2 NOR1 NOR2 ZAN1 ZAN2 SPL1 SPL2 MSC1 MSC2 OSC1 OSC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HOC1 HOC2 9th 89 2016 Mercedes-Benz DTM Team ART Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM HOC1 HOC2 SPL1 SPL2 LAU1 LAU2 NOR1 NOR2 ZAN1 ZAN2 MSC1 MSC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HUN1 HUN2 HOC1 HOC2 11th 73 2017 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes Me Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM HOC1 HOC2 LAU1 LAU2 HUN1 HUN2 NOR1 NOR2 MSC1 MSC2 ZAN1 ZAN2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SPL1 SPL2 HOC1 HOC2 10th 102 2018 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM HOC1 HOC2 LAU1 LAU2 HUN1 HUN2 NOR1 NOR2 ZAN1 ZAN2 BRH1 BRH2 MIS1 MIS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SPL1 SPL2 HOC1 HOC2 1st 255 † – Driver did not finish, but completed 90% of the race distance. ‡ – Shanghai was a non-championship round.

Complete Formula E results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Chassis Powertrain 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pos Points 2018–19 HWA Racelab Spark SRT05e Venturi VFE05 ADR MRK SCL MEX HKG SYX RME PAR MCO BER BRN NYC NYC 19th 9