The Observer

A sunny Sunday afternoon at Goodwood's Festival of Speed. I'm peering over a thick bush on the edge of the top paddock, waiting for the sight and sound of the current Formula One stars and cars. They've already smoked and screamed their way up the hill, now they're parading back down, the drivers still showboating with piercing wap-wap jabs of throttle.

My phone vibrates. As the F1 cars trail into the paddock, the marshals stoically holding back the tide of fans, I check the text message. It's an autosport.com text alert: "Juan Pablo Montoya will switch to NASCAR next season after signing with Chip Ganassi Racing." Wow.

As I look up, Gary Paffett is steering his striking chrome McLaren MP4-21 off Goodwood's stately drive and into the paddock. What a coincidence, I think. This news could be just what the young test driver has been waiting for.

At Goodwood, it was far from clear what the immediate ramifications of Montoya's bolt from the blue would be. In the Autosport office on Monday we speculated that JPM's F1 career could already be over, that McLaren would move fast to put their failed relationship with the Colombian behind them.

And so it proved. On Tuesday morning, the team's wall of silence was broken by a release stating that reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa would be racing at Magny-Cours.

As you can read in this week's Autosport magazine, Ron Dennis only found out about Montoya's NASCAR deal on Sunday morning. F1 team bosses do not tend to react well to surprises like this. An immediate split was inevitable.

So why could this be good news for Paffett? After all, it was obvious that de la Rosa would be the man to step into the No. 4 McLaren. He's done so before, of course, and with great effect, in Bahrain last year. This experienced Spaniard is held in high regard at the team, and for good reason. He is the perfect short-term fix.

Gary Paffett testing for McLaren at Silverstone © LAT

But with an eye to next year's driver line-up conundrum, surely Paffett is worth a try before the 2006 season is out? What have McLaren got to lose?

Certainly the wording of the Tuesday morning press release leaves some room for interpretation. The first paragraph states: "Team McLaren Mercedes and Juan Pablo Montoya have mutually agreed for him to step down in the forthcoming races of this year's Formula 1 World Championship. The team has decided that Pedro de la Rosa will join Kimi Raikkonen in the race driver line-up."

It's the phrase "forthcoming races" that is intriguing. That could mean Montoya might return later in the year - but that's never going to happen. Surely!

The phrase could also simply cover the final eight Grands Prix of the year. And it could also mean that McLaren may want to try someone else.

Forget Lewis Hamilton for this year. He is fully committed to winning the GP2 title, and the interruption of a high profile, high pressure F1 debut is pointless. It would mean a rushed preparation for a young driver with little F1 seat time, and if he didn't impress, all the momentum he has built up this season would be lost. Much better to sort a deal for 2007, test all winter, and be fully prepared to make a big impact.

The team have been cautiously protective throughout Hamilton's career. They won't risk everything now.

But it's a different story with Paffett. As the team's test driver, he has more F1 experience and does not have a race programme to be interrupted.

It appears certain that the choice of teammate for Fernando Alonso next year will come down to an 'in-house' decision: de la Rosa, Hamilton or Paffett. With the drivers' championship out of reach for Raikkonen, and third place in the constructors' standing fairly secure, why not use a few races this year to find out what Gary can do?

I admit it, I've got a bit of an agenda here. But not because he's British. It's simply that I've always liked him as a bloke, and like most people who have come across him, I've always rated Paffett highly.

I first met Gary in 1998 when this karting prodigy of Zip boss Martin Hines first made his move into car racing. He won the Formula Vauxhall Junior class B title and was seventh overall in a competitive season that was dominated by Antonio Pizzonia, Richard Lyons and Tomas Scheckter.

Paffett was quiet and seemed to lack a bit of confidence dealing with people - who doesn't at the age of 17! - but he was clearly a decent kid with a strong level of self-belief in his ability, born from his junior karting success. What he lacked was arrogance and the precociousness of his peers - which is probably why I liked him.

And nothing really changed as he rose through the ranks. Sure, he gained confidence out of the car as he grew older, just as you'd expect. But he remained modest and so very 'grounded'.

Hines deserves credit for a lot of that. As his manager, Martin never allowed Gary to get above his station and employed him within his Zip karting organisation.

Gary Paffett sporting Zip Kart branding on his DTM helmet © LAT

Even when Paffett was an F3 champion and had graduated to the DTM, he continued to fettle karts at Zip. He was even still manning the Zip stand at the Autosport Show at the NEC when he was established in the DTM!

Back in 1999, Paffett's obvious potential was officially recognised when he won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver award. Just over a year later, in February 2001, McLaren delivered on the prize of an F1 test.

The team gave him a run at Jerez alongside promising Formula 3000 racer Giorgio Pantano. A few days later I spoke to McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh about the two-day test, and he made it very clear which of the two drivers had impressed the most.

"Gary was massively impressive," he said. "Of the virgin F1 drivers we have put in our cars, he really stands as having a tremendous amount of talent."

Time lost under braking - a weakness expected of F1 new boys with no experience of carbon discs - stopped him from getting really close to test driver Alex Wurz's times. But what had really impressed Whitmarsh was Paffett's speed and confidence in the fast corners.

Gary had arrived - or so it had appeared. Whitmarsh had talked about more F1 tests and a possible full-time test role. But there would be no stellar rise to stardom, in the wheel tracks of his old karting rival Jenson Button. Instead, Paffett would spend the next few years racing in Germany, winning the national F3 series at the second attempt and joining Mercedes in the DTM.

With the Merc link, he was clearly on the McLaren radar. But it wasn't until his hard work was rewarded with a plum AMG drive that it actually looked like leading him anywhere. Then, when he beat McLaren's former double world champion Mika Hakkinen - one of the most gifted drivers of the past 20 years - to win the 2005 DTM title, he was in. A full-time F1 test role was finally his.

I asked Ron Dennis earlier this year why it had taken so long for McLaren to pick up Paffett, especially as they had first-hand evidence of his talent from as far back as 2001. His response was fired back. Gary wasn't being overlooked - he was being allowed to develop and gain experience. What was the point in plucking him until he was ripe?

I conceded he had a point. Gary has learnt so much since 2001 - but surely now he is ripe.

Of course, giving Paffett a chance could increase the size of the problem faced by McLaren and Mercedes for 2007. On the one hand, if Gary didn't shine they could hand the big break to Hamilton and legitimately avoid being accused of overlooking the more senior Brit.

But on the other hand, if Paffett delivers, the team's line-up decision would become even harder. De la Rosa would be a safe, conservative option - but the choice of two young Brits with real potential would probably keep Dennis awake at night.

Looks like you might be counting a few sheep anyway, Ron, so why not grab this chance to gain some real knowledge? Go on - put Paffett in the car.