Webber: Orders ban will change nothing

The article banning such tactics has been deleted from the regulations, but Webber said teams were already adept at finding ways around the rule.

"Like they [team orders] never went!" said Webber during an interview with BBC Radio Five Live.

"Look, it is something that has been around since the 1950s, 1960s. It's always been there, when you have got two drivers driving for a team and you swing results around every now and again to help the team achieve a better result.

"It has been done in the past, done up and down the field. I've done it myself at times and been on the receiving end.

"I think people should not get too nervous, they won't see it every weekend, nothing is going to change."

Ferrari's use of team orders in the German Grand Prix prompted the re-examination of the rules, and Webber said he could empathise with both Ferrari's decision to move Felipe Massa aside for Fernando Alonso, and with the fans who were unhappy at the tactics.

"The Ferrari one was pretty brutal and that is as bad as it gets - obviously for the lead of the race," said the Red Bull driver.

"Fernando was all over the back of Felipe, putting all the pressure on him, and Ferrari were put in position of what do they do - do we have both our guys take each other out - and then Ferrari would have got slaughtered for that - or swing the positions around? I can completely walk a mile in the fans' shoes with that one."

There had been extensive debate over whether Red Bull - which was vehemently anti-team orders - would have to adopt the measures during the championship finale, with the possibility that Webber's title hopes could have relied on Sebastian Vettel handing him a win. In the event, Webber and Alonso's poor races meant Vettel came through to win the title for himself.

"I think it was going to be down to Seb," said Webber of the potential for a position swap in Abu Dhabi.

"He knew, as both of us did, what needed to happen for certain drivers to be in with a chance of winning the championship and if he was in position to take the championship away from Ferrari and bring it to Red Bull then I think he could well have done that, but you never know on the night what would have happened.

"It wasn't heavily discussed but we knew the situation and I could not help him, but he could help me if it did happen, in the interests of the team."