A1 Grand Prix began at Brands Hatch, 23-25 September 2005. To celebrate the series not turning 5, over these three days, I’m looking back at what seemed like such a good idea.

All manner of drivers got behind the wheel of an A1GP car in the four seasons it ran for.

Perhaps the place to start is current Williams Formula 1 rookie Nico Hulkenberg. He was in the A1 Team Germany car for all but one meeting of the 2006-07 season, and took a ludicrous nine race wins, including both sprint and feature races at three meetings in a row. Needless to say, Germany won the championship that season.

It’s not the only title Hulkenberg has taken on his first attempt: he did the same in GP2 in 2009. Between those two achievements, he took two seasons to triumph in European Formula 3, in 2008. It’s not hard to see why he’s quite fancied as quite a star of the future in Formula 1.

The man you can’t get away from in A1GP is Neel Jani, having represented A1 Team Switzerland in each of the four seasons. He was solely responsible for the team’s title winning campaign in 2007-08, and also 2008-09, when Switzerland were runners up. The team were also runners up in 2005-06, when Jani scored all of the team’s points, despite not being in the car for two meetings.

Progress outside A1GP hasn’t been easy for Jani though. He picked up a couple of race wins in GP2 in 2005, and a podium in Champ Car in 2007. This year he contested the Le Man Series for Rebellion Racing, his number 12 entry finishing third in LMP1.

Why didn’t Formula 1 beckon? It nearly did, Jani having spent 2006 as Scuderia Toro Rosso test driver. Which neatly brings me to Sebsatien Buemi, currently racing in Formula 1 for that very team. He represented A1 Team Switzerland for six of the eleven meetings in 2006-07 – by far the team’s least successful year – with three 4th places his best results. Jani drove at four meetings, and took the team’s only win of the year. The team ended up 8th overall.

It’s only fair to point out that Buemi is five years Jani’s junior, so the comparison isn’t very fair. But fun nonetheless.

A1 Team France utterly dominated in 2005-06, driving duties shared between Nicolas Lapierre – who was part of the number 4 Team Oreca Matmut which topped LMP1 in this year’s Le Mans Series – and Alexandre Premat – currently plying his trade in DTM. Both men are also GP2 race winners.

The final driver to win the championship for his nation was Adam Carroll, for A1 Team Ireland in 2008-09. There was chatter about possible Formula 1 drives for this season, but that sadly amounted to nothing. Instead, in April he signed for Andretti Autosport, to contest a number of IndyCar Series events this year – presumably with an eye on the future.

Former Minardi Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong was possibly the most devoted A1GP driver – he was the seat holder of A1 Team Malaysia, and started 45 consecutive races – more than anyone else. He also won four races.

Jos Verstappen, Ralph Firman, Robert Doornbos and Narain Karthikeyan are among the other drivers who dabbled with A1GP after Formula 1.

Others came to Formula 1 after A1GP: Nelson Piquet Jr, Adrian Sutil, Scott Speed and Karun Chandhok all took part in the 2005-06 season.

Then there’s the unique case of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who was in Formula 1 both before and after A1GP. He did a couple of meetings for A1 Team Italy late in the 2008-09 season, after his stint with Scuderia Toro Rosso, but before he started racing for Force India.

It’s not just Formula 1. Twice DTM champion Timo Schneider represented A1 Team Germany in 2005-06. Will Power is now leading the IndyCar Series, but he was in the A1 Team Australia car for that very first race at Brands Hatch. He finished 4th and 2nd.

And there are many, many more names besides. But I’ve got to stop sometime, and that time is now.

On Thursday I looked at the vision for the series, and on Saturday I’ll remember that sunny first meeting at Brands Hatch.