Science

The World Drone Prix Finals Are This Weekend and They Look Insane

Watch a recap of the qualifiers and check out the final's crazy air-track.

by Jack Crosbie
World Drone Prix/ YouTube

The World Drone Prix finals kick off this weekend in the high-tech neon futurescape of Dubai, with $1 million in prize money on the line.

The World Drone Prix has been snowballing rapidly over the past few months, from its shaky beginnings of a promised $1 million prize and not a whole lot of other information. Since then, we’ve seen promo videos including a drone racing against a McLaren supercar. The organization has held qualifying tournaments on multiple continents before the main event, which starts with the round of 32 on Friday, March 11. The round of 16, round of eight, and grand finals will all take place on Saturday the 12th.

Though qualifying events just finished in L.A., WDP put out a hype video on Monday showcasing the track and some of the racers. On top of that, there’s now a (drone shot, of course) video of the massive, neon-illuminated high tech outdoor track built in Dubai, which looks about as extravagant as everything else in the United Arab Emirates. They also put out highlights from the qualifiers.

Though the main races are the big competition, the World Drone Prix also advertises a “freestyle” category for trick flying.

Check out the track video below.

And here are some highlights from day one of the qualifiers.

Here’s day two. You can stream every race in the finals on the World Drone Prix website.