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'Teams will hesitate before using team orders' - Button

Jenson Button meeting fans at the McLaren launch in Berlin © Getty Images

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Jenson Button has said despite the relaxing of rules on team orders, he believes teams will think twice before forcing a driver to play second fiddle.

"I don't think it will happen, I really don't," he told Reuters at the McLaren press launch in Berlin. "I think they will realise that two drivers are better than one. For setting a car up you need two experienced drivers.

"If you are putting all your eggs in one basket, the other driver's not going to feel like giving you feedback, is he? He's not going to feel like pushing the car to the limit. He's not going to qualify well and he's not going to race well.

"If I had a team I would have both drivers having a fair shot at it because they are going to push each other hard.

"I hope that drivers are allowed to race fairly. You do all this hard work of getting to Formula One and fighting your way through the lower ranks and you arrive and you should be given fair treatment."

He added the affect on the driver forced to concede could be negative. In 2010 Felipe Massa was made to concede a race to Fernando Alonso and his form over the remainder of the season fell away markedly.

"You could say [team orders] are great because all the points go to one driver but the morale within the team must be terrible because one driver always knows he is on the back foot. It can't be positive for a team to be in that environment, to have one driver know that he's got to give a place up."

Button went on to say that even if he or Hamilton was closing in on the world title with the other out of contention, he hoped McLaren would not favour either of them.

"I am happy with the position that we have in the McLaren team with no team orders, it's the way it should be when you are both world champions. You both want to fight for a world championship again, you don't want to give each other an inch on the circuit."

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