A two-times FIM junior world champion and European champion whilst still at school, he claimed gold and two-times silver during a five-year career in the FIM MX2 world series before an impressive rookie MXGP season in 2018 saw him finish the series ranked sixth in the world. 
 
Injuries occasionally interrupted his progress in the following seasons but he was a  revelation in 2024 when, as a semi-privateer, he claimed his maiden GP victory in the premier class in Portugal and was holding a solid fifth in the series standings until he was the innocent victim of a first-corner collision at the mid-summer German GP and was forced to sit out the remainder of the series with a broken arm. 
 
Fully recovered in time to join the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP for a full winter preparation Pauls immediately slotted into the highly-efficient KRT set-up, having already worked with team manager Antti Pyrhönen in 2019.