Gary Paffett Becomes DTM Champion Before Move to Formula E Next Season

Paul Jeffrey · Oct 15, 2018

Sometime McLaren and Williams test driver Gary Paffett secured his second DTM title this weekend, picking up the trophy in his and Mercedes final DTM event.

Paffett long looked to be destined for Formula One during the formative years of the British drivers’ career, having secured championship titles in such competitive series as Formula Vauxhall Junior and both the British ‘National Class’ and the main German Formula Three series, prior to signing up to what would become a long term allegiance with the Mercedes Benz brand in both Grand Prix racing and the German based DTM championship.

Running under McLaren colours in Formula One between 2005 and 2014, Paffett would conduct much of the testing duties for the Woking team in Formula One, alongside what would prove to be a highly competitive career for the three pointed star in the closed top DTM category.

Taking his first DTM championship for HWA in his third season, Paffett would continue to be a front running driver despite often finding himself in older machinery, something that would fail to slow down the Sussex based man as he became the first driver in DTM history to win a race outright in a year-old car, taking the 2007 Oschersleben race victory driving his 2006 specification Persson Motorsport C-Klasse DTM.

Despite often menacing pace displayed over the following years, it would take what is eventually to be his and Mercedes last season in the category to taste championship success once again - the Brit eventually securing the 2018 title with a tactical fourth place finish at the final round in Hockenheim last weekend, beating Audi rival Rene Rast to the top honours, ending an incredible career in the DTM in the most perfect way possible.

With Mercedes and Paffett heading over to the FIA Formula E series for next season, Paffett remains the joint most successful driver in the history of the category with 23 wins and two championships to his name, tied with long time Audi driver and fellow DTM legend Mattias Ekström, now racing for his own EKS Audi team in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, but strongly linked to a DTM return next year following Audi’s withdrawal of support for the WRX operation.

Paffett will be joined by outgoing McLaren Formula One driver Stoffell Vandoorne next season at the HWA squad.

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Happy to see Paffett secure a richly deserved second DTM championship success? Do you think the Briton will perform well in the Formula E championship next year? Did Paffett deserve a Formula One chance in his earlier career? Let us know in the comments section below!

MPortnoy · Oct 15, 2018

An excellent driver. His fight with Timo Glock during Race 2 of this year's Hockenheim opener had me at the edge of my seat. So glad he won the title.
Shame to see him (and MB) leave DTM for Formula Vacuum.

T04STY · Oct 15, 2018

Good last few rounds of the championship!
I would've prefered seeing Rast taking the title after that crazy comeback. Starting the season with such a bad car and still being the only one of the Audi lineup to be consistently fast with it, getting taking out of the race at least two times and still coming back to almost take the title at the end is outstanding imo. Really shows the qualities of Rene.
But still great job and congrats to Mercedes and Gary. They did the better and more consistent job over the whole season and deserved the title. And it was a good ending to their DTM program

Hopefully we'll see them back after two or three seasons of Formula marketing.