Gary Paffett - Biography

Gary Paffett was born on the 24th of March 1981 in Bromley, England and it didn’t take this young man long to discover his love of Motor racing. His father, Jim used to compete in club racing and Gary’s passion grew more and more with each passing event he attended. At the age of nine, Gary was given a Cadet kart as a Christmas gift and that’s when things really started to happen.

Just three years later, at the age of twelve, Gary notched up a third placed finish in the British Cadet Championships, his natural talent being natured by Martin Hines who signed him up for his Zip Young Guns team and together they won several titles before his move to single seaters where his performances continued to impress, so much so he was awarded the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Award at the age of 18, securing a test drive for the Woking based Formula One team as part of his prize.

His first taste of F1 in the year 2000 certainly impressed team bosses and several test sessions followed over the years as he progressed up the ladder, moving into the German Formula Three series with Keke Rosberg where he took championship honours in 2002 after dominating the season in style. Sadly, his F3000 drive for Brand Motorsport in 2003 was short lived as the team dropped out of the series due to financial difficulties. However, he wasn’t unemployed for long as once again he teamed up with Rosberg, this time in the DTM series.

After a sixth placed finish in 03, Gary moved to the AMG team and the following year he was crowned champion and all his hard work has finally paid off and he has been signed on as an official test and reserve driver for the  Team McLaren McLaren Formula One team in the 2006 championship season.