IndyCar rookie Ed Jones adjusting to unintended role as leader

ELKHART LAKE – Ed Jones’ goal as an IndyCar rookie was to learn from one of the best.

His teammate at Dale Coyne Racing was Sebastien Bourdais, who won titles in the Champ Car Series a decade ago, then raced in Formula One and had won four IndyCar races before 2017 started.

And then Bourdais crashed hard in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. With a broken hip and pelvis, Bourdais will be spending his time in rehabilitation and physical therapy for the rest of this season, not in a race car.

Suddenly, Jones, 22 years old and five races into his career, became the team’s senior driver.

“Although that (status) has changed, I’m still a rookie,” Jones said Friday between practices for Sunday’s Kohler Grand Prix at Road America. “I’m still learning a lot.

“And the team hasn’t put pressure on me to be that lead person. But obviously now, I’m the one that’s trying to move everything forward. It’s tough and it’s different.”

Since Bourdais got hurt, Jones has raced on three weekends with a total of four relatively inexperienced drivers as teammates: James Davison and Pippa Mann at Indy; Esteban Gutierrez, who made his series debut in the Detroit doubleheader; and Tristan Vautier, who had been out of IndyCar for more than a year before racing at Texas.

“It makes things more difficult, but I’m sure we’ll get there in the end,” said Jones, the 2016 Indy Lights champion, who finished third at Indy.

“It’ll just take us longer over the weekend, whereas when I had Seb things went quite a bit quicker with the setup.

“With his past experience, he knew straight away what he wanted and what he needed, whereas I don’t know exactly what’s right for each track.

“I’m still learning to figure out that out for myself.”

Gutierrez, who raced for three seasons in Formula One, will serve as Bourdais’ replacement through the rest of the year, the team announced this week.

Thrown together midseason, the two rookies are doing their best to learn from each other.

NOTES: Penske back on top at Road America

“It’s always disruptive for the team and everyone involved when you have to change driver lineups halfway through a season,” Jones said. “But it wasn’t like it was by choice. It was just what happens.”

Jones says as an F1 veteran Gutierrez is a rookie only in the strictest definition and Gutierrez is complimentary of Jones’ experience.

“It's all about sharing information after each session. It’s about contributing,” Gutierrez said. “We've been always together in the meetings … obviously me trying to understand what is his way of working through the weekend with the setup of the car.”

Jones improved from 13th-fastest in the morning to sixth in the afternoon practice Friday. Gutierrez went from 19th to 17th but still is within a half-second of his teammate on the 4.014-mile course.

Coyne’s team was competitive at Road America last year with Conor Daly running as high as sixth before crashing.

After one more practice session at 11 a.m. Saturday, qualifying is set for 3 p.m. Saturday and the race for 12:15 p.m. Sunday.

Jones and Gutierrez benefited from a test last week at Road America, although the session was cut short because of rain. Still, Jones would love to have that sort of extra time “to hit the track running” before every race during his first full season.

“At some point, in a few years’ time, obviously I want to be a lead driver,” Jones said. “It’s very different now because I’m still learning a lot myself.

“The team is obviously trying hard to push forward all the time, and I’m sure we’re going to be competitive.”