Getting to Know: Maximilian Paul

To say that Lamborghini Young Professional Driver Maximilian Paul has been keeping busy this year is most definitely an understatement, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

The German has competed in no fewer than four categories in 2023 and remains in contention for the International GT Open title alongside Oregon Team partner Pierre-Louis Chovet heading into the final round this month.

Paul has also raced partial seasons in ADAC GT Masters, GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup and the DTM. Indeed, it was in the latter where the 20-year-old turned heads with a sensational victory in changeable conditions at the Nürburgring to the surprise of everyone. Not least himself.

“First of all, you wish to somehow get the chance to drive in the DTM, somewhere,” Paul reflects. 
“It’s a very big championship, it is German, and I know a lot of people over there and in that circle. I’ve been through the GT Masters, which is also run by ADAC, so it felt like home let’s say. 
“But to officially be there as a driver and then to win a race, was something very special.”

Under normal circumstances, not even Paul would have predicted such immediate success on his one-off outing in the predominantly German-based GT3 championship with GRT Grasser Racing Team. But anything can, and usually does, happen in motorsport and the stars aligned perfectly on the day.

“Obviously, going into every race, your goal to win, that’s for sure, but I was very happy to just have this opportunity to drive a DTM race as it is one of the top-level championships,” says Paul.
“But of course, going into this race weekend and trying to show my best, I didn’t expect to win a race so soon. It was a great weekend because I got to know the Grasser team really well and we had a good qualifying on Sunday and then got ourselves into a position to win the race was amazing. 
“I’m very proud that we achieved this, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Grasser and of Lamborghini and everyone who supported me. I was able to show my potential straight away.”

Paul’s ascension to the top-level of GT3 racing came quickly but the Dreden-born driver didn’t arrive off the back of a junior single seater career, like so many of his peers. Instead, Paul came up through the karting ranks as an incredibly fast and talented product of the Danilo Rossi factory team.

It’s where he learned his craft, and he even admits that he would ‘probably still be racing karts’ if his graduation to cars had fallen on its face.

“I had created a kind of love for motorsport and cars when I was younger, because my dad always worked in the automotive industry and raced too,” says Paul. 
“And when he suggested I have a try at karting, I was very interested; and straight away it was clear to me that nothing else was as fun or as nice to do as racing. And then over the years, we made our way up the ranks in karting, raced a lot of tracks across Europe and gained a lot of experienced, before eventually becoming a factory driver for Danilo Rossi where I probably learned the most in my career, in terms of development and race craft.
“Obviously with him being a five-times world champion in karting, he was able to teach me a lot, and this is really the key to a lot of my success throughout my career. I still kept on driving for him even when I got my first taste of GT racing.”

That initial experience of GT racing came in 2019 and before long, Paul was in a Lamborghini for the first time. But it was not just the young German who jumped ship. The family team, Paul Motorsport and Danilo Rossi himself become firmly integrated into the Lamborghini fold.

“The whole circle closed which was good for me because I had always appreciated Lamborghini since a young karter,” describes Paul.
“Then it was up to me to get up to the level of the top drivers, and the season I did with Marco Mapelli in 2022 [sharing a Paul Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO in the ADAC GT Masters] was perhaps the year where I learned the most so far, where I had the most success and it helped me get to the point where I became a Young Professional Driver for Lamborghini.
“For me it is really good to be associated with a manufacturer, especially Lamborghini because it gives perspective and I think it is very important for a driver to have factory support.
“Even when they are young because you learn things better and you know what direction you need to go, how the factory drivers approach things as well. Because if you don’t have that, you are more in the dark and Lamborghini does a lot for its junior drivers, and it is a very nice brand which I have always been a fan of.”

The goal, like the majority of Lamborghini’s roster of young driver talent is to eventually become an official factory driver, competing at the highest level of GT and sportscar racing.

In order to get there, Paul is determined to gain as much experience as possible on and off the track, even if that means jumping well and truly into the deep end, testing himself in the most demanding of environments.

“The fact that I was driving at the top level in karting gave the mindset of being there, but obviously going into GT racing, it was a little bit difficult to adapt to at the beginning because I had no time to find my feet and grow as a young driver in cars,” Paul admits. “So, I just had to adapt as I went. I had to understand and learn during the races which was not easy but, in the end, I managed it quite well. 
“Of course, your first and second years in racing don’t look amazing against drivers who have had a career in single seaters before moving to GTs for example, but for me it was very nice because I had to perform and do my best very early, and I learned how to drive at GT car straight away and I didn’t have to adapt from single seaters like others have had to do. 
“GT was the only opportunity I had at the time to do any car racing; I had no planned career anywhere else, so if the chance hadn’t come up, I would still probably be doing karting so I am glad for everything that has happened, even the negative things shape you as a driver and I am happy about where I am and I can continue pushing on.”

Pushing on is exactly what Paul has done throughout the 2023 season. As well as taking four race wins in GT Open alongside Chovet, he’s contested a weekend of GT Masters with his family team, a highly successful DTM weekend with Grasser and an appearance in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup with VSR, taking a podium finish at Valencia alongside fellow Young Professional Driver, Yuki Nemoto.

“Competing in four different categories this season has been good for me,” recalls Paul. “I like racing in high-level competition and thrown into something and forced to deliver, because that is how you gain experience quickly. 
“I felt that because I was doing two years of ADAC GT Masters in the same circumstances, and at a certain point, you are missing some experience from somewhere else that other drivers are getting. Of course, it’s nice because you are getting better, but this year being able to drive in GT Open, different tracks, in DTM with the things I know and then in GT World Challenge with a different format, competing with different teams too is also something which forms me a lot more as a driver.”

Where Paul ends up in next year remains to be seen, but what has been proven beyond doubt in 2023 is that the German is among the fastest young drivers around at the moment.