🇦🇪 Ed Jones

Ed Jones is a professional driver who competed primarily in open-wheel racing across 13 seasons from 2011 to 2024. He is an FIA Gold-graded driver, placing him in the full-professional bracket for endurance and GT racing. Jones raced for Carlin across multiple formulae early in his career, including Formula Renault Eurocup, FIA Formula 3 European, and Indy Lights, before moving to single-seater competition in North America.[1]

His record spans five major series. In Indy Lights he won five times and took 14 podiums from 33 starts across 2015 and 2016, establishing himself as a front-runner at that level. His 63 IndyCar starts from 2017 to 2021 yielded three podiums; he contested roughly two-thirds of the calendar on road and street courses, where he was more competitive than on ovals. In the FIA World Endurance Championship he took two podiums from six starts in 2022 with JOTA, finishing eighth in the championship standings. He also raced IMSA WeatherTech endurance events with High Class Racing and made five NASCAR Xfinity starts in 2024, all on road courses rather than ovals.[2]

Jones regularly raced against strong competition in IndyCar. He was closely matched with Max Chilton, an established Platinum-graded professional who had raced Formula 1, GP2 and IndyCar extensively. He usually finished behind Josef Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar champion with 251 series starts. He finished ahead of Alex Palou three times; Palou is an elite professional and five-time IndyCar champion. Jones also beat Max Verstappen once across their shared racing, though Verstappen's career centred on his dominant Formula 1 title run rather than open-wheel formulae outside the top series.