Gaëtan Paletou was working in the family industrial packaging business when he entered GT Academy in 2014. He was one of six French hopefuls to progress from national finals to the intensive, week-long European Race Camp at Silverstone in August 2014.
With F1 legend René Arnoux as the French mentor and a crack team of GT Academy instructors at Silverstone, Gaëtan steadily progressed to become French champion and enter the final day of Race Camp and have the chance to race against the best in Europe.
Having won the race the GT Academy judges agreed that Gaëtan was a worthy European champion and he entered the next phase of GT Academy, the three-month intensive driver development programme. He entered a number of UK races as well as undergoing intensive driver, racing, physical and psychological training. He impressed throughout and qualified for his international race licence and the opportunity to claim his final prize – a drive in the 550bhp Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 car in the Dubai 24 hour race.
Four GT Academy 2014 winners teamed up with the 2013 GT Academy Germany winner Florian Strauss in Germany and recorded an impressive fifth place overall and second in class.
