Gary Paffett
Gary Paffett | |
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McLaren Autosport Award |
Gary James Paffett (born 24 March 1981 in
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
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
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.[1] 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 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, 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
In December 2005 it was announced that he would not be returning to the
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.[3] A few weeks later however, Paffett was re-signed by McLaren as the team's second test driver, alongside de la Rosa.[4]
He publicly stated that he was looking for a Formula One race seat for 2008,
For
Formula E
In the
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 |
Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap).
† – 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 |
References
- ^ "The 10 Mercedes-Benz drivers". Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. 29 March 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2009.
- ^ "DTM 2018: THE CHANGES FOR THE SEASON". DTM.com. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
- ^ "Klien gets the Honda test job". Grandprix.com. 15 November 2006.
- ^ "Lewis Hamilton joins Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes". mclaren.com. 24 November 2006. Archived from the original on 11 December 2006.
- ^ "F1 in the news". itv.com/f1. 8 December 2006. Archived from the original on 22 April 2007.
- ^ "Gary Paffett steps in as Sahara Force India's reserve driver this week". ForceIndiaF1.com. Force India. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "McLaren F1 team parts company with test driver Gary Paffett". Autosport.com. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ "F1 news: Gary Paffett joins Williams Formula 1 team for simulator role". autosport.com. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
- ^ "Mercedes signs Vandoorne, de Vries for debut FE season". us.motorsport.com. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ Boxall-Legge, Jake; Kalinauckas, Alex. "Mercedes Formula E team explains Gary Paffett's management role". Autosport.com. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
- ^ a b c "Gary Paffett Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
- ^ a b c "Gary Paffett". Motor Sport. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
- ^ "Gary Paffett race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
External links
- Official website
- Gary Paffett career summary at DriverDB.com
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