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Gary Paffett: Moving from Mercedes DTM giant HWA to ART refreshing

Gary Paffett admits his DTM switch from the factory HWA Mercedes squad to single-seater giant ART Grand Prix in 2015 was something he needed

The British driver won his 2005 title with HWA and spent eight seasons with the team between 2004 and '14.

That final season coincided with Mercedes' DTM nadir, and Paffett finished 22nd in the standings, having never previously ended a full campaign outside of the top 10.

He switched camps to help newcomer ART get up to speed, paired with rookie Lucas Auer, and finished his 12th season ninth in the standings.

"HWA is a bigger team, there are a lot more people, they build the cars, they develop the cars, they do everything," Paffett said.

"ART just runs the cars. They have a lot of input into the set-up, and there is a really good collaboration between ART and HWA, but ART is a two-car team running two cars.

"There's a bit of a different atmosphere as well. To be honest, I've really enjoyed working with HWA, and I still work with HWA, but it was at the same time Mercedes in general was struggling and I just needed something new and something refreshing.

"ART wanted an experienced driver to come in and help and I think we've worked really well together and built good relationships."

While a string of procedural issues proved costly early, Paffett was impressed with the way ART adapted to running DTM machinery, particularly the set-up gains it made during the season.

"You wouldn't expect anything different from a team that experienced that has been that successful, but it's a different series, there's a lot to learn and I think we progressed very well," he told Autosport.

"They learned the car and what was needed from the car set-up really quickly, and I think the last half of the year they have done a great job in understanding the car.

"With such limited testing, the DTM is so much about having a great initial set-up.

"If you turn up with something that's not great, you have a bad Friday session and you're really on the back foot all weekend.

"We had that at the start of the year, we had three or four weekends where we didn't get the car sorted until Sunday but it was a bit of a waste until then.

"The last half of the year, we turned up on the Friday with a good set-up and went from there.

"They were a good match for HWA in terms of getting the set-up and getting the best out of the car."

Mercedes will announce its full 2016 DTM driver line-up in early February, Autosport understands.

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