The Power of Coopetition

If you haven’t been watching Formula 1 this season, you are missing out, but let me get you up to speed. As we head into the summer break (mid-season), we have been gifted an incredibly entertaining season, especially with the continued resurgence of McLaren that started in 2024. Currently, their two drivers, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri, are locked in an inter-team battle for the drivers championship, with only 9 points between them as we head into the second half of the season. Here are a few quick stats to show you how close it is: 

Needless to say, the championship will most likely be won by either Lando or Oscar, as Max Verstappen is in a distant third (187 Points), and unlikely to catch the two McLaren drivers. 

Yet… uncharacteristically, as the season has narrowed, the pressure between and on the McLaren drivers has not boiled over to inter-team rivalry, or the team showing deference to one of the drivers. In a sport, where your most important benchmark is how you compare to your teammate, how is this possible? Especially in a most-likely championship drive?

Papaya-Rules (for the uninitiated, McLaren is known for its papaya colored car) - puts the team above the drivers, with the understanding that “it’s your team mate; race him hard, race him clean, don’t touch” as McLaren CEO Zach Brown has explained. 

Even when the drivers have touched this season, as Norris did when he caught the inside rear of Piastri’s car in Canada after going for a gap that was not really there, Norris was quick to take responsibility – stating “there was no one else to blame but myself, I apologized to the team, I apologized to Oscar.” 

So what explains a shift from drivers pursuing winning at all costs, to a model that prioritizes “team” interests over that of the “driver’s” interests?

There is an interesting concept called Coopetition that can contextualize Papaya Rules. Coopetition is a strategic concept that combines cooperation and competition, describing situations where entities (or in this case teammates) simultaneously compete and collaborate to achieve mutual benefits. The term captures the paradoxical reality that competitors can work together in certain areas while remaining rivals in others. 

McLaren has asserted that its two sides of the garage will cooperate as much as possible to find mutual benefits – and success, and the drivers will compete as closely as possible without jeopardizing the team’s success. 

And in essence this makes sense – the drivers championship rewards individual glory, whereas the constructor (team) championship rewards the thousand staff who work tirelessly to position the team to be a title contender. It also preserves the financial reward the teams earn from their constructor positions – meaning teams are financially rewarded for how well the team does, not just one driver. 

Coopetition is found across the business spectrum, and is the rising tide for many direct competitors:

Technology Sector: Perhaps nowhere is coopetition more evident than in tech. For example, Samsung supplies components to Apple while competing directly in smartphones. Intel and AMD compete in processors but cooperate on industry standards. Google and Apple compete in mobile operating systems but collaborate on web standards and various business partnerships. 

Airlines: Carriers compete for passengers on overlapping routes but cooperate through alliances like Star Alliance and oneworld, sharing codes, frequent flyer programs, and airport facilities to offer customers broader networks than any single airline could provide.

Automotive Industry: Car manufacturers compete for market share but collaborate extensively on safety standards, environmental regulations, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, and sometimes share platforms or technologies to reduce development costs.

Streaming Services: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ compete for subscribers but cooperate with content creators, technology providers, and sometimes even co-produce content or share distribution rights in different regions.

Pharmaceuticals: Companies compete for drug sales but often collaborate on research and development, clinical trials, and regulatory approval processes, especially for rare diseases where individual market sizes are small.

So what is going to happen in the back-half of this F1 season? Will Norris and Piastri continue to pursue Coopetition, or will they give-in to self-interest and the pursuit of individual glory? Both drivers have exhibited incredibly high levels of objectivity and empathy for one another – but as there becomes fewer races to distance one driver from the other, it will be telling if they continue to buy into preserving the collective good over individual success. 

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