Van der Drift is no mug and although he had an inauspicious weekend in China finishing seventh and 14th, he's got the goods as evident by his winning of the International European Masters championship last year. He's confident of getting a good result and the idea of pulling on his country's colours has him excited.
"Representing your country has a different feeling to driving in a normal race you have to organise yourself," said van der Drift. "It'll be especially different here in New Zealand as all the fans will be supporting Black Beauty and I'll be piloting that."
His poor outing at Chengdu was more to do with the car than his driving ability and van der Drift is chomping at the bit for another go.
"That's all in the past and a lot of things have been changed since then anyhow. It shouldn't be the same at all and I'm really looking forward to it."
With this season's other driver, Earl Bamber, away testing in the DTM (German Touring Car Masters), van der Drift is the only rookie the New Zealand team will have at the event and hence will be able to take part in all the practice sessions.
"I was last there in 2006 when I was helping Earl [Bamber] in the Toyota Racing Series and I had a walk around then," said van der Drift. "Although I've won championships in the past the A1 rules say I'm a rookie so that'll help. I'll be able to drive in all the practice sessions and get more driving time."
Despite no longer being formally involved with A1, former A1 Team New Zealand CEO Bob McMurray still has a genuine passion and belief in the nation versus nation format.
"It's good to see the A1 back in New Zealand again especially with the Ferrari engines and the new chassis," said McMurray. "It will be good to see it as it's the fastest racing series we'll see in NZ and it's exciting because just about everyone has a chance of winning. Eighty per cent of the teams could win, which is obviously not the case in Formula One."
For the A1GP Taupo event, the series will break with tradition and the sprint race will have a standing and not a rolling start. The decision was made on safety grounds in an effort to avoid any carnage at the tight S-bend after the start.
IndyCar driver Marco Andretti will be piloting the US car during the weekend. And after his success in Malaysia, finishing third in the feature race, he'll be itching to show it was no flash in the pan.
"I've never been over there, but I've heard a lot of good things about it from Scott Dixon," said Andretti. "I know very little about the circuit, but I'm sure we'll get up to speed pretty quick."
Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes will be able to get some advice from the team's seat holder, Emerson Fittipaldi (two-time Formula One world champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner) as he drove Denny Hulme's McLaren for a few laps last year.
Robert Doornbos will be in the car for the Netherlands after finishing on the podium in the sprint race at the China round of the series. Portugal and France will again use the familiar Filipe Albuquerque and Loic Duval respectively, in an attempt to close the gap on series leaders Ireland.
The pack will have to be on their game if they're to catch Adam Caroll as he's no slouch around Taupo. Last year he picked up a sixth in the sprint race and came from the rear of the grid to finish fifth in the feature race.
"I am determined to have a strong weekend in Taupo; we have had a terrific reaction in Ireland to leading the series, and I want to keep the momentum going," said Carroll.
New Zealand, who are in joint third with France, 12 points back from Ireland, will be hoping the leading three teams will be too preoccupied with each other and leave the door open for the Kiwi team to grab a couple of podium finishes.
