// AI Motorsports
A2RL Autonomous Car Racing: Kinetiz Wins at Imola as AI Motorsport Goes Global
A2RL took driverless racing to Imola in September 2026 and produced its messiest, most revealing race yet. The results, the teams and what Abu Dhabi's AI motorsport league tells us about self-driving software.
The fastest car at Imola on September 5 stopped dead while leading. The second-fastest hit it from behind. The two-time champion never made the start. And a UAE team called Kinetiz won the first autonomous car race ever held in Europe.
That afternoon sums up the A2RL autonomous car race. It is fast, sometimes chaotic and the most public stress test of self-driving software anywhere.
What A2RL is
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) is run by ASPIRE, the grand-challenges arm of the UAE’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). Teams, mostly university labs, receive identical cars and write the software that drives them. There is no human on board and no remote driver.
The league says more than 25 teams compete across its car and drone programs, from over 30 countries. Its autonomous drone championship runs on the same principle.
How an A2RL race works
Every team starts from the same car. The Season 2 car, the EAV-24, was based on the Super Formula SF-23 chassis, with LiDAR, radar, cameras and onboard compute in place of a cockpit. By Imola the spec had moved on to EAV-25 hardware. Teams cannot change the hardware, so the competition happens in software: perception, path planning, control and race strategy.
Races use rolling starts, and race control can neutralize the field with a virtual safety car. Those tools were needed from day one. At the inaugural race in Abu Dhabi on April 27, 2024, four cars started and only two finished, after system malfunctions and long virtual safety car periods. TUM’s car won.
Most of a team’s year is spent in simulation. ASPIRE’s Alessandro Tucci said the Imola performances reflected more than 5,000 hours of simulation and racing in 2025. That is the hidden cost of entry: a university lab needs engineers, compute and time, not a driver.
The teams
The 2025 grid mixed returning names TUM (Germany), PoliMOVE (Italy), UNIMORE (Italy) and Constructor (Germany) with newcomers. These included AiPEX Racing (USA), Aladin Innovation (France), TGM (Japan) and TII Racing (UAE). Imola’s five-car field was Kinetiz, Constructor Racing, PoliMOVE, Unimore and TUM.
A2RL at Imola: race report
The 12-lap race was A2RL’s first outside Abu Dhabi and ran as part of the ACI Racing Weekend at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Five cars took part, all on identical EAV-25 hardware.
| Team | Country | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Kinetiz | UAE | Winner |
| Constructor Racing | Germany | 2nd |
| PoliMOVE | Italy | Classified 3rd, retired after collision |
| Unimore | Italy | Pole and fastest lap (1:40.000), stopped with technical issue |
| TUM | Germany | Returned to pits before the rolling start |
According to the organizers’ race report, Unimore led from pole until a technical issue stopped the car suddenly. PoliMOVE, running within a second, struck its rear, ending both races. PoliMOVE still took the top speed of the day at 252.3 km/h. TUM, champions in 2024 and 2025, had a problem on the formation lap and pitted. Kinetiz inherited the lead and kept it.
Kinetiz team principal Omar Hanif Alqassim called the win a proud moment for a team representing the UAE abroad.
Why Imola was hard
Imola is narrow, old-school and unforgiving, nothing like the wide run-offs of Yas Marina. Teams had nine days of physical testing in rain and hail, using a new wet-weather kit, and completed 38 laps between them. Most of their preparation happened in A2RL’s Sim Sprint, using digital twins of Yas Marina, Suzuka, Imola and the A2RL Autodrome.
A2RL results so far
- April 2024, Yas Marina: TUM won the inaugural race.
- November 2025, Yas Marina: TUM won again with a last-lap overtake, in front of more than 10,000 spectators and 600,000 online viewers, according to A2RL. The prize pot was US$2.25 million.
- September 2026, Imola: Kinetiz won.
A first win for a home team, in Europe, matters to a league funded by Abu Dhabi. It also shows the field is getting deeper. TUM had won both previous races; at Imola it never took the start.
Why autonomous racing matters off the track
ATRC secretary general Faisal Al Bannai framed Imola as a test of reliability, resilience and real-time decision-making. Read that as an engineering brief. A road car’s autonomy stack has to handle exactly what went wrong here: a car ahead stopping without warning, a sensor or compute fault, a decision in milliseconds.
Racing compresses those failures into 12 laps on live television. That is why the same universities appear across series. Unimore, PoliMOVE and TUM also race in the US Indy Autonomous Challenge, where Unimore won the head-to-head passing competition at Laguna Seca two days earlier.
Who to watch
- TUM: champions in 2024 and 2025, and now with something to prove after Imola.
- Kinetiz: a first win, on the road, for a UAE team. The question is whether it can repeat on home tarmac.
- Unimore: pole and fastest lap at Imola, and winner of the IAC passing competition the same week. Raw pace is not its problem; reliability is.
- PoliMOVE: top speed at Imola and one of the most experienced teams in autonomous racing.
What’s next for A2RL
The next A2RL race returns to Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the league’s home since 2024. A2RL has not yet published the date. The stated goal is to become the first international championship for fully autonomous race cars, which means more stops like Imola.
Can you bet on autonomous car racing?
Not at a sportsbook. No US state-regulated or UK-licensed operator lists A2RL markets. With five or six cars, few races a year and frequent technical retirements, a bookmaker would struggle to price it. So far none has tried.
If your interest is the AI race itself, CFTC-regulated prediction markets list contracts on tech and AI questions. Our AI prediction markets guide covers what is available. Availability varies by state, and trading event contracts involves risk of loss.
FAQ
Who won the A2RL race at Imola?
Kinetiz, a UAE team, won A2RL's first international race at Imola on September 5, 2026. Constructor Racing finished second and PoliMOVE was classified third.
What car does A2RL use?
At Imola every team raced identical EAV-25 hardware, so performance differences came from each team's software for perception, planning and control.
Who won A2RL in 2025?
TUM of the Technical University of Munich won the November 2025 race at Yas Marina Circuit with a last-lap overtake. TUM also won the inaugural 2024 race.
How much prize money does A2RL pay?
The November 2025 A2RL car race in Abu Dhabi carried a US$2.25 million prize pot. A2RL has not published a prize figure for Imola.
Can you bet on A2RL autonomous racing?
No US state-regulated or UK-licensed sportsbook lists A2RL markets. Prediction markets cover AI and tech questions but not individual autonomous races.
