“The future for this year looks good; there is some space freed up in a new car and it looks like I'm going to be back racing for the works team, fighting hopefully for the championship again. So it's back where I want to be,” said Paffett at the Autosport International this weekend.
The British driver has previously won the championship in 2005. However, he decided to leave the series a year later and try his luck in Formula 1. Following a year as official test driver for the Woking-based team, Paffett returned to race in the DTM as he was unable to secure a racing seat with McLaren (losing out to then-GP2 sensation Lewis Hamilton).
Despite coming back to the series as a DTM champion, Paffett was relegated to Mercedes' second team Persson Motorsport and was forced to drive an one-year old C-Klasses for the following 2 seasons. Not anymore though, as the Brit promises to turn these last 2 years of frustration into a second championship title.
“After fighting for the championship in 2004 and 2005, I proved myself to be the best driver they've got. And then to be coming back and racing in equipment that's not really got the ability to win races, let alone the championship... it is difficult to do. But in that respect you have got to look at the future, look at the possibilities that are going to arise, and stick it out. And that's what I had to do for two years, which was certainly a year longer than I wanted to. But it looks like we got there in the end,” added Paffett.
The Bromley-born driver won a single race in the last 2 years – at Oschersleben, in 2007 – and ranked 9th overall for the second year running in 2008.
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