While F1 has developed a cult following around the globe, it is just a small part of the wider Formula world. There are electric car leagues, F1 gaming competitions, and now, an F1 league made up entirely of self-driving cars.
Announced at tech festival GITEX 2023 in Dubai, the Dallara Super Formula SF23 will be without human drivers, putting high-speed cars in the hands of artificial intelligence systems as they hurtle around race tracks at breakneck speeds.
In a competition created and hosted by Abu-Dhabi company Aspire, 10 teams will compete with an identical car designed by the Italian race car manufacturer Dallara. While these teams cannot make changes to the performance of the car or the parts, they can adapt their vehicle's software algorithms.
"We combine talent, technology and extreme sports in order to forge a pathway to the future of mobility," Tom McCarthy, Aspire's executive director, told BBC Science Focus and other attendees at the GITEX event.
“We will combine state-of-the-art motor racing parts with artificial intelligence to deliver an extreme sporting experience.”
The event is set to take place on April 28, 2024, at the Yas Marina circuit with a prize of $2.25 million (£1.85 million) up for grabs. Unlike the usual racing team made up of engineers, drivers, mechanics and more, these teams will come entirely from universities and research teams in the field of AI.
These teams include institutes from North America, Italy, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Germany and Hungary.
Revealing details of the car hat the GITEX event, the car’s specs will be the same for each team. It weighs 690kg, reaches a max speed of 186mph and is electrically powered, putting it in a similar league to Formula E.
Continuing the theme of future technology in this league, viewers will be able to access the event via virtual and augmented reality, being able to sit in the driver’s seat and experience the race.
This isn’t the first time that autonomous cars have been put against each other in competition. The Indy Autonomous Challenge takes place each year in North America. This league has led to leaps in self-driving technology and the hope is that it can be replicated in the Dallara Super Formula races.
Unlike real-world cases, such as Tesla’s self-driving technologies, the Dallara league will allow self-driving technology to operate at much faster speeds, accessing other cars driving close at similar speeds.
“We are performing real-world experience where we will demonstrate what autonomous systems can achieve at the edge of friction,” said McCarthy at the event.
“And in that way, giving consumers the confidence to have these cars put into the production line and on the roads”.
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