Bourdais 'making progress' at Coyne

The four-time Champ Car champion is now in his third test with the squad - which has only won one race in over two decades of Champ Car/IndyCar, but which has a history of achieving strong underdog results with top drivers, having run the likes of Oriol Servia, Cristiano da Matta, Bruno Junqueira and Justin Wilson in recent years.

Though Bourdais was only 16th in the end-of-day timesheets at Monday's Barber Motorsports Park test, he feels he is making strides with the car.

"We started, really, from nowhere. The car was really bad and we had a bit of a tough time," he admitted. "But towards the end, we started to get a little closer.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but it's encouraging because we made some progress. We have a lot of things to try with the geometry of the car, and I'm still learning the car and what changes work for me.

"We still have a lot of things to investigate, but the boys worked really hard today, and we'll keep plugging away."

Bourdais has not competed in American single-seaters since winning his final Champ Car title in 2007. He is expected to sign to race for Coyne on road and street events this year around his sportscar programme with Peugeot.