One year on from its troubled debut in front of the world motorsport community, A2RL returned to Abu Dhabi for a second finale that showcased its potential, including a major surprise.
Many motorsport series have come and gone in the last 20 years, a combination of cost and lack of viewing figures killing off any long-term future before it has a chance to succeed.
A major lesson from the ill-fated A1 GP was that any new motorsport venture must bring something unique to the table: passion alone is not enough to counter the catastrophic costs.
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) seeks to bridge this gap. However, by its nature, it divides opinion in a similar way to Star Wars sequels and prequels can cause ferocious debate amongst diehard fans.
Launched in 2024, the series attracted attention for its AI-powered cars, but, far from a glowing debut, the series was reduced to its loyal fans singing its praises, while casuals mocked it.
But after a year of evolution and intensive AI development, A2RL returned to the Yas Marina circuit for a second demonstration of its capabilities, yielding far better results.
The cars were visibly faster and able to overtake without veering off into the barriers. But is this new series aiming to disrupt the order at the top of global motorsport?
We spoke to A2RL’s Technical Director Nicola Palarchi before the weekend’s action kicked off, to understand the series’ appeal to motorsport and its future potential for the wider automotive industry.
What is A2RL?
Asked to introduce the series and its origins to fans tuning in for the first time, Palarchi explained that its IP and aim is to bring the technology it champions to the mass car market, as AI-powered cars begin to take a foothold in Abu Dhabi.
“A2RL is, first of all, is a technological competition”, he explained. “It’s a little bit different from the normal, let’s say, motorsport event, as we run all autonomous cars. Cars are fully autonomous. The idea and the mandate that we have as A2RL is to bridge, let’s say, the gap between technology and public or final users or possible future users.
“We are part of a bigger organisation that is called ATRC, which is the Advanced Research Technology Centre for the state of Abu Dhabi. And as I said before, our mandate is of, let’s say, pushing the technology research forward. And we do this in different ways.
“One is the pure research, where one of the companies involved is TII. Then we have the exposure, also bringing this technology to the public, which is something that Aspire and A2RL are doing, by creating challenges.
“We create challenges for autonomous cars, autonomous drones, but not only these. There are also challenges about agriculture, sustainability, search and rescue, for example, on the sea, in open sea.
“And then we have a third branch that is basically looking for commercialisation of what the technology or searching, let’s say, use cases for the technology that we develop. And this is, in summary, let’s say, what we do.”
Revealing details of the cars that power the AI revolution, Palarchi’s insight into the intelligence of the AI indicated a vast improvement over 2024’s efforts, with a focus on racing balanced with pushing the boundaries of technology.
“We have a fleet of 16 autonomous Super Formula 23 that have been renamed EAV 25, or the 25 model, let’s say, where the top of the standard race car, we have an autonomous kit. This autonomous kit is basically replacing what the driver is doing and thinking.
“So it’s not just the action, but also one of the biggest challenges, obviously, is for the car to plan what it’s going to do, execute, but also, let’s say, preview what the other car might do. So, you know, have some attack or defending strategies trying to foresee where an opponent car might go or how they might react.One of the big, let’s say, enhancements of our competition is that we have a full open race concept.
“So there is no limitation on the competition on track. We have multi-cars. We had in the first event, we had four cars on track. For the event that is going to happen on this Saturday, we’re going to have six cars competing. And it’s pure open racing, like you would see on a normal racetrack or, let’s say, a normal motorsport competition.”
Selecting the car powering an AI racing revolution
The car to power this AI revolution had to be carefully selected, not just for its aesthetics, but for the ability of the AI stack to fit seamlessly into the design. The car chosen was the 2023 Super Formula car.
Equipped with Lidar, Radar, sensors and GPS, these cars push the boundaries of technology, Palarchi explained the selection process, as well as how the car was adapted.
“So there is obviously, there’s a long or not so long process in selecting a car suitable,” he said.
“So there were a series of parameters that we had to follow or that we wanted to follow. So we wanted a car that can have an impact. And if you look at the super formula car, it’s definitely a beauty in its own.
“It’s really aggressive and especially at the time that it was selected. its for example, competition was like a Formula 2 car, right?Which it was at a very distinct design to the one that is running now.
However, the main attraction to Super Formula came from its unique construction, and adaptability to A2RL’s unique style of racing. Technical evolution is critical for the series as the AI stack develops, as the series Technical Director explained.
“So the Super Formula looked really good, but it was not the main scope. One of the real huge reasons and decision to go this, because the super formula is the first car that is built with biocomponents.
“So the bodywork is a mix of carbon and biotechnologies. So it’s very advanced in the sense of sustainability. And by its size or the internal size of the cockpit and such is the one that was most suitable for installing an autonomous kit.
“Obviously, mind you, this was the first of our, let’s say, experience with autonomous kits. So we built from scratch, as you know, as a prototype and the first one. There will be, you know, there are optimisations that then you do through the years.
“So we wanted anyway to start with a car that is good in terms of performance, that is equal, friendly, as much as a motorsport car can be. And also that give us the flexibility of building architecture that we want into the car.”
Learning from a challenging 2024 experience
The 2024 Abu Dhabi event gained infamy amongst fans and engineers alike, headline news for all the wrong reasons. Reviewers criticised the speed and accuracy of the cars as they veered off the track or struggled to race together.
Work to improve the spectacle has been exhaustive, with Palarchi explaining that narrowing the gap between human and AI performance is critical to the series’ future.
“So we did, to be fair, we did a lot of work on the software and the hardware of the car because we realised during the first edition that obviously we were still at the prototype stage”, he admitted.
“So we did a lot of enhancement. And these enhancements are not just to make the car faster, but to make the car more reliable and give the time, more time to the teams to develop their software.
“As a result, I think we increased by probably 60 per cent the track time, the utilisation of the track time that we had compared to last year,” he revealed. “We have decreased the complexity of some operations so teams can really focus on developing their own autonomous tech.
“And in this year, the level of competence, the teams have developed through actual testing, track testing. We have done over 40 days on track and the increase of utilisation of the simulator, including a series of four online sim races amongst our teams. That really made a huge step, a step that is visible not only in the lap times.I think in the first year, the gap was around 9 seconds from human to autonomous.
“Now we are running on a different layout, but the gap is very much reduced. And actually, if we look at just pure numbers, the autonomous car has been faster than the human driver. The lap time of the human was only recorded during a testing session, so it was not really, let’s say, in qualifying mode.
“I expect, or we expect actually, that the lap times will be close, but it’s very difficult now to judge how much the human driver will push the car forward. But it will be a very, very tough competition, which last year there was, I would say, no hope for the autonomous car to stay close to the human.
“And going back to what A2ML does, we had in A2ML some competition, which is based on a similar concept, and we had human versus AI. And by surprise, by everyone’s surprise, the autonomous won against the human. So I think this year comes with a lot of surprises under this point of view.”
Human vs AI race
One of the main attractions of the weekend was the Human vs AI showcase. Former Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat was pitted against one of the A2RL teams. The event showcased the massive development of AI in just 12 months.
A car was given a 10-second headstart over Kvyat, with the Russian challenged to hunt it down over 10 laps. What raised eyebrows, however, was the time delta between the two cars.
In a victory for the series’ long-term prospects, the gap between the AI and Kvyat was just 1.5 seconds, with the Russian coming out on top. This will send shockwaves through Motorsport, given last year, AI’s closest lap was 10 seconds slower than a human.
Asked about the Russian’s thoughts ahead of the weekend, Palarchi gave an insight into the preparations for the run.
“I mean, he was very curious, to be honest, and quite excited. It’s something that doesn’t happen every day. And he was really curious about the challenge. Obviously, as I said, last year, in the end, the challenge was not the most difficult one.
“We had another go in Suzuka, when we actually attended the demo session during the last race of the Super Formula Championship. So we had a very good and strong win with Japan.And there, on Suzuka, the lap time delta was already decreased to around, if I remember, six seconds.
“So there was already a gain from, let’s say, April to November. And he actually was looking forward to coming back this year.And we’re very happy to have the same driver for the show. It will be very interesting and probably some surprises on his side, when he will have to face the autonomous car at this level of competition.”
A strategy for converting industry passion to fan following?
Divisive by its very existence, A2RL faces a long, uphill battle with motorsport’s fanbase to gain and cement credibility. Those who live and breathe the sport (and more crucially are aware of the series), rightly praise its future potential. But there is a gulf between industry knowledge and casual fan engagement.
Interest in the series within motorsport has grown dramatically since its first race last year, attracting competitors from China, Japan, France and Italy, amongst others. Palarchi revealed a major coup for the series – a race team in traditional motorsport signing up for 2025. In total, 11 teams took part this season, with six progressing to the weekend’s grand final.
“Yeah, I mean, honestly, the interest is high. Sometimes the interest is not always backed by the financial capabilities. It was always a run-and-miss kind of car competition.It’s not the cheapest, but there’s a very good support that is coming from Aspire under this point of view.
“But we also have, let’s say, a very strict gating for accessing, for newcomers, because due to the nature of the competition, there is, let’s say, high stakes involved. And we really want to, not to have just teams that are going to try to do something.
“We want to have teams that have solid bases to compete. And I must say, this year we have three new teams, one of which is an actual race team that is racing in the Super Formula in Japan that decided to take on the Autonomous Challenge.
“This, for me, is absolutely astonishing. I mean, there’s always a little bit of, I don’t know, you know, diffidence from motorsport to these autonomous cars and stuff. But seeing a race team that is interested and wants to join the competition, and has actually the capabilities to perform, it’s really exceptional. This is really a mix that we really love.And we add another country, Japan, to the mix.
“Then we have a French team that is coming from automotive and also joining the competition. And they are coming from a completely different environment than all the other teams, because most of the teams are coming from a robotics environment.I would say all the ones that joined before
“And now, instead, we have a team that’s coming from motorsport background and automotive, which is new, refreshing, even if it’s only one year in the series. And it’s surprising how different the approach that these teams are taking to some of the subjects and how they build their autonomous stack.”
Where does A2RL feature in the long term future of motorsport?
But despite the increase in interest from motorsport, the memes and mocking reviews that surfaced after last year’s race did A2RL no favours.
Undoing that kind of negative publicity is not an overnight job, a bit like a footballer believing they can be a ballerina and then performing with only minimal training – yes, it can be done, but done poorly, a lasting image remains.
Asked where the series will fit into the growing motorsport series list, Palarchi outlined his vision, including making the clear statement that A2RL does not seek to rival or equal F1.
“To be honest, it’s a very strange positioning in the sense that I personally come from motorsport background. I’ve been in Formula 1, WEC, and other series,” he said. “And for me, it was when I joined something very different.
“And in reality, it is something very, very different from the standard motorsport. So far, all the teams are using the same car, same setup. And the real competition is only on the autonomous kit.
“So how good their coding is, which is not the standard motorsport approach, right? When you try to tune pressure things. And the aim is not to replace a motorsport.What I say to when somebody is interested on the engineering side, I say, look, if you want to be involved, don’t think you can. If you want to be a race engineer, don’t come here. There are other series where you can, you know, you can engineer a car.
“And this, I think, in the long term, I never believe in a series that wants to come and be the new Formula 1 or the new whatever. This is not our aim. Our aim is to have a competition that brings the technological challenge forward.
“And this being not only to replace the human, but also to, for example, provide a kit or a software that fits into a high performance car or the car of your son that is freshly taking a driving licence.
“As a, let’s say, as a guardian angel, right? He’s on the side.He’s not stopping the car if something goes wrong. He’s preventing, you know, when he sees that the car goes too quick into a corner, he gently slows down the car just to the right speed because of the algorithm that has been developed.
“So as a series, our plan is to go be always more and more international to bring high quality events to let the people see and understand what are the extreme capabilities of autonomous driving.
“Then someone would take it as a replacement of some other would take it as additional layer of safety on a car or any other vehicle. So this is where I see us bringing these narratives to all continents. So that can be Asia, Europe, Africa or America.”
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