Available to book
Gary Paffett
Accelerate high-performance teams with Gary Paffett, speaker and motorsport leadership expert. Gary works with organisations to optimise team cohesion, strategic decision-making, and resilience under pressure, delivering championship-winning insights as two-time DTM Champion and Formula E Racing Director.
Gary Paffett is a two-time DTM Champion, former F1 test driver, and current Racing Director of the Cupra Kiro Formula E Team, with over two decades of experience at the highest levels of international motorsport. He combines competitive insight with leadership expertise to guide teams and drivers to peak performance.
Gary joined DTM as a Mercedes-AMG factory driver in 2003, achieving over 185 starts, 23 wins, 48 podiums, 17 pole positions, and 14 fastest laps, and securing championship victories in 2005 and 2018. He served as a test and development driver for McLaren-Mercedes and Williams in Formula 1, later competing in Formula E and major GT endurance events.
Transitioning into management, Gary has held leadership roles as Sporting Advisor, Team Manager, and Sporting Director with Mercedes EQ, NEOM McLaren Formula E, and Extreme E, before joining Cupra Kiro in 2025. He works with teams to cultivate resilience, focus, and alignment under pressure, emphasising data-driven marginal gains, strategic decision-making, and collaborative performance optimisation.
Gary translates elite motorsport experience into lessons on high-performance teamwork, incremental improvement, and mental resilience, helping organisations explore how elite strategies and continuous refinement can be applied to business performance, innovation, and leadership.
Attendees gain insights into building cohesive, results-driven teams, a deeper understanding of the value of incremental improvements, and the know-how when it comes to applying a high-performance mindset to strategic challenges.
Book Gary to share expert perspectives on leadership, performance, and collaboration in competitive environments.
Topics, sessions and talks
Gary Paffett explores how elite teams operate under intense pressure, drawing on his experience as a long-standing team captain and racing director. He examines how trust is built, communication is sharpened, and diverse specialists are aligned around a single goal. Gary illustrates these principles with examples from DTM, Formula 1, and Formula E, showing how high-performance environments foster cohesion, resilience, and collective success, offering practical lessons for organisations aiming to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Gary Paffett examines the power of incremental improvement, demonstrating how small, data-driven adjustments across people, processes, and performance can compound to deliver a decisive competitive advantage. Drawing on his career in DTM, Formula 1, and Formula E, he highlights techniques for refining strategy, optimising engineering, and enhancing team output. Gary emphasises the importance of attention to detail, consistency, and continuous measurement, revealing how marginal gains translate into tangible performance outcomes in high-stakes, competitive environments.
Gary Paffett focuses on the mental resilience, focus, and decision-making required to perform consistently at the highest level. Drawing on his experience in elite motorsport, he explores the pressures of competition, public scrutiny, and rapid decision-making, showing how mindset shapes results under extreme conditions. Gary shares methods for maintaining clarity, composure, and determination, offering insights into sustaining performance, managing stress, and cultivating the psychological strength necessary for leadership, teamwork, and long-term success in high-pressure contexts.
Gary Paffett combines championship-winning motorsport experience with proven team leadership, offering practical insights into performance optimisation and resilience. His expertise in high-pressure environments resonates particularly well with organisations seeking to improve strategic leadership and team cohesion in competitive markets.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Gary Paffett, email gary.paffett@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Gary's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Gary Paffett structures his sessions around case examples drawn from his career across DTM, Formula 1, and Formula E, using these as reference points to illustrate principles such as marginal gains, team cohesion, and decision-making under pressure.
Gary Paffett speaks on teamwork and collaboration, marginal gains in competitive performance, and mindset and resilience. He is a two-time DTM Champion, with 23 wins and two championship titles across 185 starts as a Mercedes-AMG factory driver, and currently serves as Racing Director of the Cupra Kiro Formula E Team.
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