Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League holds first international race in Italy

The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) held its first international race at the Imola Circuit in Italy on September 5, 2026. This event marked the league’s expansion beyond Abu Dhabi, representing a step toward establishing a global championship for fully autonomous race cars.

UAE-based team Kinetiz secured victory in the 12-lap race. Constructor Racing from Germany took second place, followed by Italy’s PoliMOVE in third and Unimore in fourth. The previous two-time champions, TUM from Germany, finished fifth after experiencing technical issues during the formation lap.

Organized by ASPIRE, the grand challenges arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council, the competition utilized identical EAV-25 hardware for all five cars. This setup was designed to highlight differences in software capabilities, specifically in perception, planning, control, and real-time decision-making.