Competitive Collaboration – The Unique Characteristic of Formula 1

Welcome to my new blog, “Leave Me Alone, I Know What to Do,” a blog about the human element of F1. If you are looking for detailed analyses of aerodynamics, downforce, specs, track comparisons, etc., this is not the place for you. However, if you are wondering how to the personalities and competing interests on and off the track influence the final results, you are in the right place.

As for myself, I have a PhD in a humanities discipline and specialize in analyzing collaborative relationships, monetary interests, and conflicts between big personalities. While my professional expertise is generally reserved for these issues in the theatre, my newish-found love of racing has led me to want to understand more in depth how similar forces influence the world of Formula 1.

Which brings me to the subject of today’s post. As a young American woman, people are often surprised by my enthusiasm for the sport (how I got here will, I am sure, be the subject of another post). My usual reply always includes my favorite aspect of Formula 1: it is both a team sport and an individual sport. Of course, even the individual side is a team sport, as it takes hundreds of people to support each side of the garage, but I am talking about how each team wants to win a championship, but so does each individual driver. Even those drivers not in contention for a championship want to do well in hopes of moving up to a better team with a better car, receiving better sponsorships, and competing at a higher level within the next few years.

Yet, as most of us know, the team must also do well for the car to be competitive, both for monetary and developmental reasons. Sharing information between both sides of the garage allows for engineers to develop the car better and more efficiently throughout the season. Sometimes, however, the interests of each individual driver and/or the team boss come into conflict, and this is where the show gets exciting for me.

There are a few different ways that teams can work together. Here are a couple of examples:

First, in my dissertation, I developed a concept called antagonistic collaboration for when two or more people share a similar goal but have extremely different opinions and ideas about how to get there. Rather than compromise, each member of the team works independently within their own area. Think of this as a “stay in your own lane” kind of collaboration.

This kind of collaboration works best when there is a lot of trust between members of the team. A good, productive example of this happened in Hungary, when Hamilton, against his own judgement, pitted for mediums. He trusted James, and James knew Hamilton could drive well enough to catch Verstappen. James strategized; Hamilton drove. (We are seeing a very dysfunctional version of this at Ferrari right now, where no one trusts each other. Vettel clearly has been in the strategy lane a few times this season.) Vitally, both Hamilton and James knew that they shared a common goal: Hamilton to finish P1.

However, in thinking about the relationship between both sides of the garage, I would call what happens something more like competitive collaboration. Both sides know that they need to work together to get the best results from the car, but in the end, each side wants their driver to do better than their teammate. Other examples of this sort of collaboration could include when drivers or bosses across teams work together to change regulations – we saw this with the Pirelli tyre vote, when some of the teams wanted to go back to the 2018 tyres. Teams had to form voting blocs with their competitors, and in the end, those teams most interested in keeping the current tyres won out. Entities normally in competition with one another know that it is in their best individual interest to work with their competitors.

It’s not just between teams that competitive collaboration occurs, but also within teams. What makes F1 unique is that this is the case every week, every race, every moment. Competitive collaboration is the norm, rather than the exception.

So why does this matter?

There are some obvious ways in which it affects the sport, such as team orders. While a driver may want to beat their teammate in a race, having their teammate win the WDC can bring more prestige, more sponsors, and therefore, more money to the team. If one driver is already statistically eliminated, it makes sense to collaborate with their teammate for long term gains.

A more interesting example right now is what is happening at Haas. By having Grosjean and Magnussen run different specs, the two drivers know that they are getting vastly different cars and most likely, vastly different results. Now, while we know that Grosjean wanted to go back to the Australian spec, we don’t know what Magnussen wanted. Perhaps he wanted to go back too but knows that it is in the interest of the team and himself long term to figure out what the problem is with the new chassis. On the other hand, maybe both he and Grosjean think that they have the better spec for them. (Though from how Magnussen has been complaining the last two weeks, I don’t know if that’s a certainty).

Furthermore, with silly season upon us, teams must consider how each driver that they hire might navigate the difficulties of competitive collaboration. Though I think both drivers have matured immensely, historically Verstappen and Hamilton have struggled when they were not clearly number one driver. Neither is a great team player, so hiring a second driver that will be able to push down their pride and be a team player is critical. On the other side of that coin, we hear drivers like Hülkenberg and Bottas being frustrated at their number two status, and they might be looking for a team where both sides of the garage are focused more on the competition rather than the collaboration.

Either way, I love seeing these mini-dramas play out every race and thinking about how they affect the end results. For my next blog, I plan on doing my best to look at the role personality and collaboration play during silly season and give my predictions for next year’s line-up.

If you enjoyed this blog, please like, share, and comment. Are there any other models of collaboration that you think of us as being especially unique or important to F1?