Gary Paffett

Gary James Paffett (born 24 March 1981 in Bromley) is a British former racing driver. Having become a household name in the 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.

Gary Paffett
Paffett celebrating his 2018 Championship victory in the DTM.
Nationality	British
Born	(1981-03-24) 24 March 1981 Bromley, Greater London, England
FIA Formula E career
Debut season	2018–19
Racing licence	FIA Platinum
Car number	17
Former teams	HWA Racelab
Starts	13
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Finished last season	19th
Previous series
2003–18 2005–12 2003 2001–02 2000 1998 1998–99 1997	DTM Formula One testing International Formula 3000 German F3 British F3 FPA Winter Series Formula Vauxhall Junior FVauxhall Junior W. Series
Championship titles
2018 2005 2002 2000 1999 1998 1997	DTM DTM German F3 British F3 National Class Formula Vauxhall Junior FVauxhall Junior Class B FVauxhall Junior W. Series
Awards
1999	McLaren Autosport Award

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, he 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, Gary 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, Gary 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.

Paffett competing in the 2014 DTM season.

2018 season

In 2017, Mercedes announced it would leave DTM after the 2018 season. Since 2018 did also feature a rule change resulting in the cars having less downforce meaning that small contact would less likely result in race ending damage, Mercedes could come back from a dip in form over the last couple of years. In the first race at Hockenheim the Mercedes proved a serious contender and allowed Gary Paffett to take his first win since the Lausitz ring in 2013 in the first race at Hockenheim. The second Hockenheim race featured a momentous battle between Gary Paffett and Timo Glock which was won by the BMW driver. From here on, the Mercedes proved a very good car all through the season and with taking 3 wins and further 7 podiums, Paffett was at or very near the top of the table all season. In the mid-season, his main competitor was fellow Mercedes driver Paul Di Resta with the lead of the championship changing a couple of times between the two notably in Brands Hatch and Misano World Circuit. With Paffett having an unlucky raceweekend in the latter. In the last 3 race weekends, René Rast and his Audi team gave Paffett a very real challenge taking a win in all 6 races. This didn't prove to be enough however with Paffett taking the crown in Hockenheim at the last race of the season and thus closing the book on DTM for Mercedes with the drivers title, team title and the manufacturers title, providing Paffett and the Mercedes-AMG team with the perfect fairytale ending to their DTM careers.

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 testing a McLaren MP4-28 at Silverstone in July 2013

He 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.

Paffett driving a Williams FW33 on the streets of Madrid during an exhibition in 2016

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

Paffett at the 2019 Hong Kong ePrix

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)

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
2001	Team Rosberg	Opel	HOC 1 2	HOC 2 Ret	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 10	OSC 1 1	OSC 2 Ret	SAC 1 22	SAC 2 Ret	NOR 1 4	NOR 2 3	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 Ret	LAU 1 5	LAU 2 8	NÜR 1 12	NÜR 2 15	A1R 1 4	A1R 2 4	HOC 1 2	HOC 2 2	6th	123
2002	Team Rosberg	Opel	HOC 1 1	HOC 2 16	NÜR 1 C	NÜR 2 C	SAC 1 1	SAC 2 EX	NOR 1 1	NOR 2 1	LAU 1 1	LAU 2 11	HOC 1 2	HOC 2 6	NÜR 1 7	NÜR 2 7	A1R 1 1	A1R 2 10	ZAN 1 Ret	ZAN 2 Ret	HOC 1 1	HOC 2 7	1st	83

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 14	CAT	A1R	MON	NÜR	MAG	SIL	HOC	HUN	MNZ	29th	0
Sources:

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	Pos.	Pts
2003	Team Rosberg	AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM	HOC	ADR	NÜR Ret	LAU 15	NOR Ret	DON 9	NÜR 8	A1R 6	ZAN 12	HOC 18†											11th	4
2004	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004	HOC 1	EST 13	ADR 4	LAU DSQ	NOR 1	SHA 1‡	NÜR 1	OSC 4	ZAN 4	BRN 3	HOC 3										2nd	57
2005	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2005	HOC 2	LAU 1	SPA 8	BRN 4	OSC 1	NOR 1	NÜR 3	ZAN 1	LAU 2	IST 1	HOC 3										1st	84
2007	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2006	HOC 8	OSC 1	LAU 8	BRH 10	NOR 4	MUG Ret	ZAN 9	NÜR 12	CAT 5	HOC Ret											9th	20.5
2008	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2007	HOC 7	OSC 11	MUG 12	LAU 10	NOR DSQ	ZAN 11	NÜR 4	BRH 8	CAT 11	BUG 4	HOC 11										9th	13
2009	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009	HOC Ret	LAU 1	NOR 5	ZAN 1	OSC 5	NÜR 8	BRH 4	CAT 4	DIJ 1	HOC 1											2nd	59
2010	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009	HOC 1	VAL 7	LAU 5	NOR 6	NÜR 3	ZAN 1	BRH 5	OSC 4	HOC 4	ADR 2	SHA 1										2nd	67
2011	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009	HOC 6	ZAN 9	SPL 8	LAU 4	NOR Ret	NÜR 8	BRH 4	OSC 4	VAL 8	HOC 5											7th	25
2012	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse Coupé	HOC 1	LAU 2	BRH 1	SPL 3	NOR 4	NÜR 6	ZAN 7	OSC 2	VAL Ret	HOC 2											2nd	145
2013	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse Coupé	HOC 4	BRH 6	SPL 9	LAU 1	NOR 18†	MSC 5	NÜR 17	OSC 6	ZAN 9	HOC 9											6th	69
2014	HWA Team	DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé	HOC 12	OSC 8	HUN Ret	NOR 12	MSC 16	SPL 17	NÜR 16	LAU 13	ZAN 19†	HOC 10											22nd	5
2015	ART Grand Prix	DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 3	LAU 1 23	LAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 3	NOR 2 7	ZAN 1 11	ZAN 2 10	SPL 1 7	SPL 2 2	MSC 1 7	MSC 2 6	OSC 1 Ret	OSC 2 13	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 Ret	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 9			9th	89
2016	Mercedes-Benz DTM Team ART	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	HOC 1 11	HOC 2 4	SPL 1 18	SPL 2 13	LAU 1 14	LAU 2 5	NOR 1 14	NOR 2 DSQ	ZAN 1 4	ZAN 2 2	MSC 1 3	MSC 2 18	NÜR 1 19	NÜR 2 7	HUN 1 20	HUN 2 16	HOC 1 19	HOC 2 15			11th	73
2017	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes Me	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	HOC 1 7	HOC 2 2	LAU 1 6	LAU 2 4	HUN 1 7	HUN 2 9	NOR 1 10	NOR 2 Ret	MSC 1 7	MSC 2 16	ZAN 1 8	ZAN 2 5	NÜR 1 10	NÜR 2 14	SPL 1 17	SPL 2 4	HOC 1 9	HOC 2 4			10th	102
2018	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	HOC 1 1	HOC 2 3	LAU 1 9	LAU 2 1	HUN 1 6	HUN 2 15	NOR 1 2	NOR 2 13	ZAN 1 1	ZAN 2 2	BRH 1 6	BRH 2 2	MIS 1 Ret	MIS 2 14	NÜR 1 3	NÜR 2 5	SPL 1 10	SPL 2 3	HOC 1 4	HOC 2 3	1st	255
Sources:

^† – 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 Ret	MRK Ret	SCL 14	MEX 16	HKG 8	SYX Ret	RME Ret	PAR 8	MCO 12	BER 16	BRN 17	NYC 11	NYC 10	19th	9
Sources:

External links

• Official website
• Gary Paffett career summary at DriverDB.com