The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League will race outside the UAE for the first time on September 5, 2026, fielding up to five fully autonomous racecars built on the Dallara Super Formula SF23 at Italy’s Imola circuit. The event marks A2RL’s first international race and a step toward its goal of building a global championship for fully autonomous racecars, according to organizer ASPIRE, the grand challenges arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council. The series has grown from a public AI testbed into a competitive racing platform since two prior seasons at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, and will return there for the 2026 season finale after the Imola round.
Highlights
- Race date: September 5, 2026, at Imola, Italy — A2RL’s first race outside the UAE
- Up to five autonomous Dallara Super Formula SF23 racecars on the grid
- Reigning champion TUM (Germany) qualifies automatically alongside Unimore Racing and PoliMOVE (both Italy); Kinetiz (UAE) and Constructor Racing (Germany) compete for the remaining two spots
- Sim Sprint simulation series runs May 19 – July 17 across digital twins of Yas Marina, the A2RL Autodrome, Suzuka, and Imola
Five Teams Head to the Grid
TUM, the reigning A2RL champion, qualified for Imola on its 2025-season results, alongside fellow qualifiers Unimore Racing and PoliMOVE, both based in Italy. Kinetiz of the UAE and Germany’s Constructor Racing will contest qualification events ahead of race weekend for the two remaining grid spots.
Imola’s Layout Raises the Bar
Imola, home to the European Le Mans Series, is known for elevation changes, narrow racing lines, limited run-off areas, and difficult overtaking zones. According to A2RL, those characteristics will test how the cars’ autonomous systems handle grip, traffic, positioning, and overtaking under sustained pressure, with results depending on software precision, sensor integration, and real-time decision-making.
Alessandro Tucci, Executive Director of the House of Grand Challenges at ASPIRE, said: “Imola is the perfect testbed for the top A2RL teams to demonstrate their racing capabilities on an extremely challenging track. Imola does not allow for half-measures. It rewards precision, control and courage, which makes it the right circuit for autonomous racing to show what it can do under real pressure. Every car on track carries the work of engineers and coders pushing AI from simulation into real competition.”
From Simulation to the Circuit
Teams will prepare through A2RL’s Sim Sprint series, running May 19 through July 17 across high-fidelity digital twins of Yas Marina, the A2RL Autodrome, Suzuka, and Imola, before concluding at the Yas Marina North Circuit. The prior season’s Sim Sprint logged more than 5,000 hours of combined simulation testing and racing across 11 teams, giving squads a controlled environment to validate algorithms against multi-car racing, overtakes, and incident-response scenarios before reaching the track.
From a Four-Car Debut to a Six-Car Grand Final
A2RL has grown from a world-first four-car autonomous race into a six-car Grand Final with cars racing wheel-to-wheel at speeds exceeding 155 mph (250 km/h). The league has also positioned itself as a proving ground for autonomous systems against professional drivers: according to A2RL, the gap between its cars and human racers narrowed from roughly 10 seconds in 2024 to 1.58 seconds in 2025.
H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council, said: “A2RL began in Abu Dhabi with a clear conviction: the future of mobility must be tested openly, rigorously and at the limits of performance. Its international debut at Imola demonstrates how the UAE is translating bold R&D ambition into globally relevant technology platforms that can accelerate progress in autonomous mobility.”
Stephane Timpano, CEO of ASPIRE, said: “Taking A2RL to Imola is a major milestone in our ambition to build the world’s first international championship for fully autonomous racecars. Few circuits carry the heritage and global standing of Imola, making it a powerful stage for our first international race. This is an important step for autonomous motorsport as both a technology platform and an emerging global sporting format.”
Back to Abu Dhabi for the Finale
Following Imola, A2RL returns to Yas Marina Circuit for the 2026 season finale, the venue that has hosted the series since its 2024 launch. Ahead of the Imola race, A2RL also engaged Italy’s motorsport and academic communities through Motor Valley Fest in Modena and a university roadshow spanning the University of Bologna, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and Politecnico di Milano.
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