Formula One: Paffett Eyes Leap to Formula One

The British driver Gary Paffett believes he is in line for promotion to a full-time formula one race drive next season if David Richards, the founder of Prodrive, concludes a deal to run a second team of McLaren cars in the 2008 world championship.

The 26-year-old from Essex, who is one of the official test drivers for the McLaren-Mercedes squad and last Sunday won the DTM saloon car race at Oschersleben, Germany driving a Mercedes C-class machine, said: "It's difficult to say, but I'd like to say I'm quite confident."

Paffett, speaking to autosport.com about his chances of graduating to formula one in 2008, continued: "The situation with David Richards and McLaren seems to be getting closer, and if that happens and they become effectively a B-team for McLaren, then I would say I've got a very good chance of racing."

Richards, who recently headed a £200m consortium to purchase the Aston Martin sports car company, intends to capitalise on new rules next season which will allow formula one teams to race so-called "customer cars" built by other teams rather than building their own from scratch.

Paffett added: "If that doesn't happen then there's still a chance, but that seems to be the direction it's going in; McLaren and Mercedes want more cars with their engines. The team will be looking for three drivers, and out of the drivers from Mercedes, I'm one of the more experienced in F1, so I think I've got a pretty good chance. On that side it's looking better all the time."

Paffett is highly rated by the McLaren management, who have made no secret of their regard for his testing abilities over the past season. "I think that Gary is a very talented driver and if he gets the opportunity to race in formula one I am sure he has the potential to be very competitive," said Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive.