Autonomous race car wins Europe’s first multi-car self-driving race in Italy

Monday 14 - 14:40

By: Azzat Manal

Autonomous race car wins Europe’s first multi-car self-driving race in Italy

An autonomous race car has taken first place in a landmark competition at Italy’s Imola circuit, where several driverless vehicles competed alongside professional racing cars in what organizers described as the first event of its kind in Europe.

The race was held as part of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL), an international competition designed to test the capabilities of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving systems under demanding racing conditions. The Team Kinetiz entry emerged victorious after starting from fourth place on the grid.

Team Kinetiz brought together researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, technology company K2 from the United Arab Emirates and autonomous-systems developers Alp Autonomy. The team’s victory highlighted the rapid progress being made in autonomous motorsport and the growing ability of artificial intelligence systems to make complex decisions without direct human control.

The result was particularly notable because Team Kinetiz had not been the fastest during qualifying. Italian teams Unimore Racing and PoliMOVE, as well as defending A2RL champions TUM from the Technical University of Munich, all qualified ahead of the eventual winners. Team Kinetiz was 2.936 seconds slower than the leading qualifying time.

The team nevertheless delivered a strong performance during the race, moving through the field before taking the lead and maintaining it until the finish. Constructor Racing from Germany crossed the line second, 10.963 seconds behind the winners.

All participating autonomous vehicles were built around the Dallara Super Formula SF23 chassis, a high-performance platform derived from the machinery used in professional single-seater racing. Unlike conventional racing cars, the vehicles competing in the autonomous category had no driver in the cockpit. Acceleration, braking and steering were controlled entirely by onboard autonomous systems.

The technology had to perform several demanding tasks simultaneously. The vehicles continuously calculated their position on the circuit, detected surrounding objects, anticipated their movements and selected appropriate actions. They also had to respond rapidly to changes in the behavior of competing cars while maintaining control at high speeds.

Imola provided a particularly challenging environment for the autonomous systems. The historic Italian circuit features elevation changes, barriers, uneven sections and a layout that differs significantly from Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, where many of the participating teams have carried out previous testing.

Five teams completed nine days of testing at Imola before the event. Unimore Racing set the fastest qualifying time at 1 minute and 37.314 seconds. During practice, however, the gap between autonomous technology and human performance appeared relatively narrow, with the fastest driverless lap only 0.85 seconds slower than a lap recorded by professional driver Jojo Noda.

The competition therefore offered more than a battle for the podium. It served as a real-world test of whether autonomous systems can operate competitively in conditions that demand rapid decision-making, precise vehicle control and the ability to react to other cars.

The success of Team Kinetiz also demonstrates the increasingly international character of autonomous motorsport. The winning project combined academic research from Singapore, technological expertise from the UAE and specialized autonomous-driving development, illustrating how universities, technology companies and racing organizations are collaborating to advance artificial intelligence in high-performance vehicles.

Autonomous racing is increasingly being viewed as a testing ground for technologies that could eventually have applications beyond motorsport. Systems capable of interpreting complex environments, predicting the movements of other road users and making rapid driving decisions are among the technologies being explored for the future of automated mobility.

The victory at Imola represents another step in that development, showing that driverless racing cars are moving beyond controlled demonstrations and into competitive environments where performance is measured directly against other autonomous machines and professional human drivers.