Paffett aims to beat Mika

Speaking exclusively to autosport.com at last week's Autosport International Racing Car Show at Birmingham's NEC, Paffett suggested that Hakkinen might be surprised by the standard of competition in the series.

"Hakkinen is very quick, very focussed and he is a double F1 champion. He's going to be a great measuring stick for the likes of me and Jamie Green.

"I don't think he [Hakkinen] will underestimate the cars," said Paffett. "He did a lot of testing before he made the decision to do the DTM. But I think he may underestimate the standard of drivers. It is a class championship and it is very hard to reach the top level of it.

"When I was driving an old Mercedes in 2003, I thought I was giving 100 percent, then when I got into the works team I had to find an extra 25 percent!

"Mika is going to have to push very hard to beat me! I am not going to roll over easily and I think you'll find that a lot of drivers are going to feel that way."

Paffett, who won three races officially last year, says that other than Hakkinen he believes the main threat will once again come from Audi. "The eight Audis will be strong I think next year," he said. "Even the four old cars are going to be hard to beat!"