World champion Sebastian Vettel had a high-altitude scare when returning to his home in Switzerland from Singapore earlier this week.

Media reports say the Singapore Airbus A380 carrying the Red Bull driver, as well as other F1 personalities including Peter Sauber, encountered a problem just before landing in Zurich.

The pilots diverted to Frankfurt, and Bild newspaper said it was a failure of the aircraft’s instrument landing system (ILS).

Passengers recalled that as the plane descended for landing, the pilots suddenly pulled back up at full power.

“We were never scared, because we were given very good information from the cockpit,” Sauber is quoted as saying by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“But during the approach I did think, oops, the forest down there is looking rather close. Then we went back up.”

Said Vettel’s press manager Britta Roeske: “The captain came immediately to Sebastian and explained the electronic defect. Sebastian was very relaxed and even let himself be photographed with the crew members and passengers.”

Lewis Hamilton is considering a move from Switzerland to Monaco.
The Telegraph reports that the 2008 world champion is waiting for a vacant apartment on the glamorous Principality’s Avenue Princesse Grace.

The report said the 26-year-old wants a “livelier lifestyle” than the one he has in Switzerland, but another factor could be the country’s new income tax laws.

The UK government will share information with its Swiss counterpart that could mean residents like Hamilton have to pay millions in backdated tax.

“I am quite happy in Switzerland but it (Monaco) is definitely an option,” said the McLaren driver.

He admitted that Monaco is a “spiritual” home for F1 drivers, including his McLaren teammate Jenson Button.

“Yeah,” said Hamilton, “but I wouldn’t move for spiritual reasons. I love where I live in Zurich, it is a spectacular place to live and it would be hard for me to leave there.”

Hamilton meanwhile returned to the British newspaper headlines on Saturday following his latest reaction to criticism of his driving style and off-track personality.

“I’ll take my driving style to my deathbed, for sure,” he is quoted as saying.

“People overreact to everything. You make a squeak and people overreact to it. That’s the way of this world,” said Hamilton, adding that F1 journalists do a lot of “yapping”.

Sergio Perez has been declared fit to race in Canada this weekend.

The Mexican rookie was hospitalised for two days after his big Monaco qualifying crash, but he has since had a positive medical check in Zurich and been karting with his brother in his native country.

“I felt very good,” said Perez, 21, referring to the karting.

He met with FIA medical representative Jean-Charles Piette at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Thursday and was cleared to drive this weekend.

Perez’s Swiss employer Sauber confirmed the news.

Peter Sauber on Sunday said he is “very optimistic” Sergio Perez will be in action this weekend in Canada.
The Mexican rookie spent two nights in a Monaco hospital with concussion and a bruised thigh after his high speed qualifying crash.

He must be cleared by FIA doctors before getting the green light to race this weekend.

But team boss Sauber wrote in the Swiss Sonntagsblick newspaper that, after the 21-year-old’s hospital stay and some further rest days in the Principality, Perez was at the weekend examined in a speciality clinic in Zurich.

“The results were positive, so we are very optimistic that he will be at the start in Canada,” he said.

Sauber revealed that the FIA doctors will examine Perez on the Thursday before the Canadian grand prix in Montreal.

As one icy F1 relationship almost completely thaws, another has frozen solid.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso clashed infamously at McLaren in 2007, but Hamilton has now admitted he would be happy to reunite with the Spaniard.

“I’m happy with the way I have things now but I would have no problems having him as a teammate,” the Briton said.

Hamilton also refused to agree that Alonso’s potential 2010 title win has been tainted by the team orders affair, insisting the now Ferrari driver would “deserve to walk in the company of the great names of the past”.

“You are going to be very hard put to find someone beat him on raw talent,” he told the Mirror.

“When he comes to Zurich he texts me every now and then to meet up,” revealed Hamilton.

Meanwhile, at Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel has revealed that his relationship with teammate Mark Webber is near irreconcilable.

“Quite a few things have happened this season,” the German told Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung newspaper.

“Let’s put it this way: we will probably never be friends,” added Vettel.

Red Bull’s dominance has been curbed because it is no longer fielding an illegal car, according to Lewis Hamilton.

The 2008 world champion said that after the team’s RB6 utterly dominated in Hungary in August, the tighter FIA flexibility tests have obviously affected the pace of the Adrian Newey-penned car.

“Good question,” McLaren driver Hamilton told Bild newspaper on a visit to Berlin this week.

“In Hungary they were 2 seconds per lap faster than the rest of us.  It is simply impossible to have a lead like that.”

When asked specifically if he thinks Red Bull were cheating earlier in 2010, Hamilton answered: “We have always kept to the rules.

“Our people wondered if their car was legal and we asked the FIA.  After that Red Bull had to rebuild their car and take a step back.

“It was a good decision by the FIA,” said the Briton.

He was also asked about the apparent psychological warfare being deployed by his championship rivals at present, particularly by his former McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso.

“It’s normal that, at the end of a season, the mind games begin.  I’m strong enough and ready for it.  I’m not worried, but I think it’s best if you just do your talking on the track,” said Hamilton.

And despite almost writing off his championship chances after Singapore, Hamilton now insists he is ready for the challenge of the final four races of 2010.

“I was back at home in Zurich for one day; I woke up in the morning and went for a run in the forest with rap music on my headphones.  So I’ll be back,” he insisted.

For the first time in many years, Pedro de la Rosa will be watching a grand prix this weekend from the comfort of his Zurich home.

The Spanish 39-year-old, who before returning to the F1 grid this year with Sauber was McLaren’s long-time tester and veteran of some 70 grands prix, has been ousted and replaced for Singapore and beyond by Nick Heidfeld.

“It’s a shame I’m not racing because Singapore would have been my first night race,” he said.

“But I will be following the race with interest from home,” added de la Rosa.

“I must admit it will be difficult to watch on TV because for years I have either been taking part or commentating, so to see it from the sofa will be very strange,” he admitted.

Peter Sauber has refused to comment on reports Pedro de la Rosa will not return to the wheel of his car for the rest of the 2010 season.

The authoritative Blick newspaper, well-connected with the Hinwil based team’s 66-year-old founder and boss, said Nick Heidfeld will be driving the sister C29 alongside Kamui Kobayashi in Singapore in two weeks and beyond.

La Nueva Espana said that after Spaniard de la Rosa’s post-race media rounds in the Monza paddock on late Sunday afternoon, the 39-year-old was called for a meeting with the team’s management.

The report said the driver left the circuit immediately afterwards “with a scowl” and began his road journey back to his home in Zurich.

“He did not answer his phone,” said the writer.

Peter Sauber also refused to comment: “I am not talking about my drivers,” he said.

After not appearing in the Spa paddock two weeks ago, Heidfeld was inconspicuously present at Monza over the race weekend.

The report at lne.es said sources have confirmed that it is “99 per cent” certain the 33-year-old German will be racing in de la Rosa’s place in Singapore.

UBS chief executive Oswald Grubel reportedly wanted to take the sponsorship of the Swiss bank to a formula one team.

Grubel, who previously brought Credit Suisse into the sport with Sauber, was eyeing a similar deal for UBS now that he is in charge of the Zurich based global financial services company.

But according to Switzerland’s Blick newspaper, the UBS board voted against the plan, agreeing instead to become a sponsor of the entire sport in a deal that was announced on Monday.

Industry insiders estimate the value of the deal at EUR 40 million per year.

“In line with all commercial contracts, the financial terms will not be disclosed,” said a spokesman.

“Commercial attractiveness was however a key consideration for UBS and the agreement compares favourably with other forms of brand awareness and client hospitality.”

Blick said Grubel’s plan-A had been to once again link up with Peter Sauber’s independent Hinwil based team.

UBS spokesman Peter Hartmeier would not say where the company’s logos would be seen at grands prix, except that they could be “in places where previously there was no advertising”.