Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), UAE technology company K2 and autonomous systems specialist Alp Autonomy have won the world’s first multi-car autonomous race held in Europe, after their joint entry, Team Kinetiz, took first place at Italy’s Imola Circuit on 5 September.
Five fully autonomous race cars competed at the Formula 1 circuit in the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League’s (A2RL) first international race and its first multi-car competition outside Abu Dhabi. Team Kinetiz finished ahead of Germany’s Constructor Racing. The international field also included reigning A2RL champion TUM from the Technical University of Munich, and Italian teams PoliMOVE from Politecnico di Milano and Unimore Racing from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
From fourth on the grid to victory
For the actual race, Team Kinetiz started fourth on the grid after qualifying, behind Unimore Racing, PoliMOVE and TUM.
The Singapore-UAE team then moved up the ranks during the multi-car race to take the win at one of motorsport’s best-known circuits. Team Kinetiz won the race 10.963 seconds ahead of Constructor Racing, which finished in second place.
Italian media reported that a collision eliminated Unimore Racing and PoliMOVE while they were contesting the race, underscoring the challenge of having several autonomous race cars compete simultaneously at high speed.
Team Kinetiz brings together NTU Singapore’s research expertise, K2’s autonomous technology capabilities and Alp Autonomy’s software engineering expertise.
Alp Autonomy joined the team in 2025 and contributed to the autonomous driving stack, including localisation, perception, prediction, planning and vehicle control.
Team Principal Omar AlQassim said: “It’s a very proud moment for all of us at Team Kinetiz to win A2RL’s first international race and, most importantly, to represent the UAE on an international stage. The team has worked extremely hard for this achievement, and seeing that effort result in a win makes it even more special. It was a great race and very well organized by ASPIRE, who have created a strong platform to showcase what the UAE is building in autonomous technology. We’re proud to bring this victory home and to represent the UAE’s ambition and capabilities on the global stage. We also have to thank our sponsors, NeolixAI and Momenta, whose invaluable support, commitment and shared belief in the team’s vision have played an important role in achieving this milestone”.
NTU Singapore Vice President (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Professor Louis Phee said: “This win is a testament to NTU’s standing as one of the world’s leading universities in artificial intelligence research, and to our ability to translate that research into technology that can perform under demanding real-world conditions. Singapore may be a small nation, but achievements such as this show that we can punch far above our weight in deep technology. By combining NTU’s research capabilities with strong industry partners, our researchers can compete and win against the best teams in the world and help advance technologies that could shape the future of autonomous mobility.”
NTU is ranked fourth in the world for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026.
Mustafa Alp, Managing Director of Alp Autonomy, said: “We are pleased to put together a solid performance where we demonstrated a stable baseline of our software stack after 2 years of development under Kinetiz. The taste of victory is now experienced for our team, and for the future races I hope that this result is a powerful motivator to keep pushing forward. The next target is to expand our team for repeating the victories by becoming the fastest as well.”
Racing without a driver
The teams competed in autonomous race cars based on the Dallara Super Formula SF23 platform. With nobody behind the wheel, software developed by each team had to control the car and make decisions including when to accelerate, brake and steer, while responding to other cars on the track in real time.
A2RL uses motorsport as a high-speed testbed for artificial intelligence and autonomous mobility, putting autonomous systems through conditions that require rapid perception, decision-making and vehicle control.
Imola presented a new challenge compared with A2RL’s previous races at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit. The Italian track has elevation changes, bumps, kerbs, gravel traps and limited overtaking opportunities.
Before the race, the five teams underwent nine days of testing at Imola. Unimore Racing took pole position with a lap of 1 minute 37.314 seconds, while Team Kinetiz qualified fourth, 2.936 seconds behind.
A2RL said the fastest autonomous lap during testing came within 0.85 seconds of a benchmark lap set by Super Formula driver Juju Noda.
A2RL expands beyond Abu Dhabi
Organised by ASPIRE, the innovation acceleration arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council, A2RL held its first autonomous car race at Yas Marina Circuit in 2024.
The competition has since progressed to multi-car racing. In its 2025 Grand Final, six autonomous cars raced together at Yas Marina Circuit, with vehicles reaching speeds of more than 250kmh.
A2RL said the performance gap between its autonomous cars and a professional driver had narrowed from about 10 seconds in 2024 to 1.58 seconds per lap in 2025.
The Imola race, held as part of the ACI Racing Weekend, marked A2RL’s first international race and a step towards its ambition of developing an international championship for fully autonomous race cars.
The 2026 A2RL season is scheduled to conclude at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.