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At the age of eight, Paul made his Karting debut, following in the footsteps of cousin Dario Franchitti - who was to go on to achieve great success in Indy Cars.
Over the next few years the youngster was to rise through the Karting ranks, finishing runner-up in the European championship in 199 and winning the British championship in 2001.
In 2002, Paul made the switch to single-seaters, contesting the British Formula Renault Winter Series. He remained in Formula Renault for the next two seasons, finishing seventh in 2003 and third in 2004.
In addition to his impressive outings in the British Formula Renault series in 2004, Paul also contested several rounds of the of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and the Bahrain F3-Superprix in which he finished fifth. Unsurprisingly, he won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of The Year Award, thereby following in the footsteps of his famous cousin once again, Dario Franchitti having won it in 1992. As part of his prize, the youngster got to test a McLaren F1 car at Silverstone.
In 2005, Paul moved up to the F3 Euroseries with Manor Motorsport. While it was a largely disappointing season for the Scot - he finished tenth overall - the following year he bounced back in style taking the title from under the nose of Sebastian Vettel, courtesy of five wins and four other podium finishes.
For 2007, Paul made the surprise switch to DTM with Trilux AMG Mercedes - once again following the path taken by his cousin. Finishing the season fifth overall, he was also was the highest placed driver a non-2007 car.
Such was the impression he made on Mercedes in 2007, for 2008 he was handed a Mercedes C Klasse drive and he repaid the German manufacturer by finishing runner-up just 4 points behind title winner Timo Scheider in the Audi. He remained with Mercedes in DTM for 2009 this time finishing third overall behind Scheider and (McLaren tester) Gary Paffett.
Following the link-up with McLaren and Mercedes for the 2009 season, there was speculation that Paul might get a test seat, or even a race seat, with Force India, however, the Silverstone-based outfit opted for Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi.
Then, following three days of testing for the team at Jerez in late 2009 - when he was consistently among the pace-setters - it was widely assumed that he might get a race seat for 2010, but again it was not to be as the team retained Sutil and Liuzzi. However, on February 2, Paul was confirmed as official test and reserve driver.
In addition to his F1 duties, Paul will continue in DTM in 2010 with Mercedes, determined to go one better than he did in 2008.
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