Dubai: UAE-born Ed Jones wants to make the most of a ‘huge opportunity’ in his second Indy Car season – which starts in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Sunday – after joining one of the format’s top sides Chip Ganassi Racing over the winter.
The 23-year-old Brit former Dubai College student, who started out karting in Jebel Ali aged four, was with Dale Coyne Racing last season and won Indy Car’s Rookie of the Year after finishing third in the iconic Indy 500 race, which is the highlight of the 17-stage North American racing series.
He is now looking to become the long-term successor to his 37-year-old Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon of New Zealand, who has won four of the outfit’s record 11 drivers’ titles since the format’s 1996 inception.
“It’s hard to put an exact target on this season but I have to go for wins because I’m at one of the best teams now and I’ve got a huge opportunity with them, so it’s a big step up,” he told Gulf News.
“It’s still only my second year, but I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve got to aim for a few wins and try to be in the top six in the championship if I can.
“The team thinks it takes three years for a driver to get the most out of the car, so we’re learning together and I think they are looking more for the long term as well. They want me to be there for a while, which is really encouraging.
“My teammate Scott Dixon has been with the team 17 years and is one of the most successful drivers in Indy Car. It is great to be alongside him and learning from him and I think they are trying to get me into a position, where I can try and do the same. So, it’s a great position to be in and I’ve just got to take full advantage of it.”
Asked if the team’s long-term plan for him to succeed Dixon took the pressure off the need for immediate success, he replied: “I’ve still got to perform straight away and be up there.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but at the same time this is the exact position I want to be in, so it’s the right kind of pressure, where I have the opportunity to be fighting at the front with a team and the resources. It’s exactly what I’ve been working for,” added the 2016 Indy Lights and 2013 European F3 Open champion.
Jones got five top 10 finishes, including that one third-place podium in the Indy 500 with Dale Coyne last season, which saw him finish 14th in the standings on 354 points and was enough to earn him the rookie gong, but he believes his first ever win in the format could now be just around the corner with his new team.
“We’ll know more about where we stand when we get to St. Petersburg. You can’t read too much into times from testing because there are a lot of changes being made during that time that can influence performance.
“There are so many factors and everything has to fall into place, but it could happen early in the season or late,” he said of his first win. “I just have to keep working at it and be consistent from the beginning and try to be in that top six from the start.
“It’s wrong to expect to go to the first race and be winning straight away, obviously it would be great, but I have to start from a strong base that gives me something to improve upon methodically and that’s the aim.”
Luckily, having raced over the same tracks last season, and the two seasons before that from when he was racing in the Indy Lights series, he has enough experience of the circuits.
“I feel a lot more comfortable and that’s definitely going to help this year. I’ve done pretty well at St. Petersburg in the past and it’s been good for me in general, so it’s a good track to start the season on and I’m looking forward to it.”
The introduction of standardised aerodynamics however, means everything is going to be a lot closer and a lot more competitive this season.
“The aero-kit has changed and that’s reduced the downforce quite a bit. In general the car is a lot less stable and there’s more tyre degradation.
“They’ve done that to enhance the racing so you can follow more closely and overtake more.
“We haven’t noticed fully how it’s going to work,” he said following his fourth a final test session. “But it’s encouraging so far. The cars are livelier and it’s more fun. Last year you almost felt as if there was too much grip and you were stuck to the ground.”
While these changes will make it difficult for Ganassi to maintain their traditional dominance over the pack, it will also have the same impact on their newest emerging rivals Team Penske, making the season a lot more unpredictable at the top.
Penske have won three of the past four driver’s titles, interrupted only by Ganassi’s Dixon in 2015, but before that Ganassi were the powerhouse and now need to get back to the top. These wing changes might help redress the balance.
“They used to have a better aero-kit,” Jones said of Penske. “But now everything has been equalised and everyone’s got the same, so it’s going to be interesting to see how things change and how we get on.
“For me it will just be about trying to maximise everything I have with the car and if I feel like I’ve done everything I can with a race weekend, no matter the result, that’s the most you can do. But I’ll be trying to use all the resources around me to my advantage.”
