Listening to a couple of punters chatting over a coffee at Autosport International in Birmingham's NEC last week, I couldn't help but smile. Formula One, they said, has just had a fantastic season, although the problem is that it could still do with more overtaking, somehow make the results less predictable and also cut the costs in order to help all the teams compete more equally.

I smiled because they were standing alongside the A1GP stand. I couldn't help but wonder if they'd ever watched an A1 event where there is, well, more overtaking, results are impossible to predict and a season's budget would probably just about pay for a manufacturer F1 team to turn up to a track, drive their car down to the pit exit, and stop.

With next weekend's A1GP race in Taupo, New Zealand, set to mark the start of the second part of the impressive 12-race calendar, it's interesting to reflect on what the series has achieved in a little under 18 months. It feels like 18 years, sometimes, especially to those of us directly involved, but don't take that as a negative. It's just that A1GP has required a mammoth effort by all involved, A1GP itself, the teams and race promoters.

I have to declare a personal interest, of course, given that I am Team Principal for A1 Team Ireland. Along with my fellow conspirator, investor and team owner Mark Kershaw I've endured, enjoyed and endeavoured to make the most of A1GP's steep learning curve as the series has sought to carve out a niche for itself in the rather overcrowed world motor sport scene.

For those of us on the inside of A1GP it has been an interesting ride so far. The concept, originally conceived by HRH Sheikh Hasher Maktoum al Maktoum, is excellent. Over 20 identical 'Grand Prix' style cars, each representing a nation of the world and driven by a driver of appropriate nationality, competing for the 'World Cup of Motorsport' in a series spanning five continents and including countries traditionally disenfranchised by international motorsport.

At Brands Hatch for the enormously successful opening round of the series in 2005 our team's garage sat between India and Indonesia. Nigel Northridge, Chief Executive of Gallaher PLC - the owners of Benson & Hedges and thus long time Jordan sponsors - popped in to visit us. When he saw the Indian team hard at work next door and turned to see Indonesia alongside, he was smitten. This really is racing for the world, he said.

It's also racing for true racers. A driver can overtake, undertake, duck and dive, go off the track, start last, start first and yet always know that anything is possible. Races have been won from the back. Podiums achieved from a pit lane start. The Lola-manufactured A1GP car, for which Lola deserves a medal such has been its speed, reliability and resilience, rewards drivers who get on and drive it. Sitting around in the pits deciding half a degree of this or that isn't the way forward. These cars have relatively little grip or downforce compared to an F1 or GP2 car, so drivers simply have to drive. There have been countless occasions when an apparently ragged, spectacular lap, normally penalised in other categories, has produced a quick lap time.

This year's series is five races old and it's produced seven winners from the Sprint and Feature events which comprise an A1GP weekend. South Africa, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand have each had their anthems played, their drivers feted and their country's passion for motor sport rewarded.