The future of racing might just have arrived
Just as Abu Dhabi welcomes its newly appointed public servant, a fresh wave of innovation is hitting the streets, and the racetrack.
Imagine being trackside at Yas Marina Circuit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix engines roaring, tyres screeching, the scent of burnt rubber in the air, only to realise that the car speeding past you at 370 km/h has no driver inside.
That’s not sci-fi anymore. Meet the EAV-25, a jaw-dropping, completely AI-powered F1-style race car built right here in the UAE, thanks to the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).
Sleek, shiny and shaped like a futuristic hammerhead shark, this beauty is turning heads (and breaking speed limits) at the Evolve Future Mobility Show in Sharjah this week.
And get this, each one costs a cool $25 million. Yes, million.
For context, your average F1 car sits somewhere between $12–15 million, according to Red Bull Racing.
Even the steering wheel alone on this beast goes for $50,000, while those aerodynamic wings? Half a million.
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AI behind the wheel (literally)
No human ever touches the wheel, because there isn’t one to hold.
The EAV-25 runs on petrol like a regular F1 car but uses artificial intelligence, ultra-fast sensors and edge computing to make real-time decisions, overtaking, cornering and calculating racing lines in milliseconds.
It’s not just for show. A fleet of 22 EAV-25s will compete at the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League on 15 November at Yas Marina Circuit, with a prize pool of $2.25 million up for grabs.
Thousands of fans are expected to witness what could be the next evolution of motorsport, where data, not drivers, battle for the crown.
With Abu Dhabi already a fixture in global F1 history, from hosting Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel’s 2009 season-finale victory to starring in F1: The Movie with Brad Pitt, the capital seems like the perfect stage for this next chapter.
So, the big question is: could the EAV-25 one day line up alongside Verstappen and Hamilton at a real F1 race?
Maybe not just yet, but the fact that the UAE has built something that fast, that smart, and that futuristic means it’s probably only a matter of time before Formula One gets an upgrade of its own.
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