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$80M Ferrari deal would make Vettel world's highest-paid sportsman

Formula One is in for a big shakeup next season, as the only two multiple World Champions on the grid are kicking off a game of musical chairs. Just who will end up where has yet to be figured out, but the overwhelmingly prevailing wisdom has Sebastian Vettel, who has already announced his departure from Red Bull, inking a contract with Ferrari worth 150 million pounds sterling for three years - that works out to over $80 million per year.
If the reports are true, that would make Vettel (pictured above with his assumed new teammate Kimi Raikkonen) the highest-salaried sportsman in the world. Compared to Vettel's rumored $80 million/year, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo was paid $52 million last year and NFL quarterback Matt Ryan got $42 million, just ahead of soccer player Lionel Messi at $41.7 million. Boxer Floyd Mayweather was reportedly paid a whopping $100 million last year, but that's based on how many fights he fights and wins, putting him on a different earnings spectrum.
Those figures are also just for salaries, and do not include sponsorship and endorsement deals - and therein may lie part of the reason for Vettel's reportedly stratospheric salary. In addition to his salary from the Red Bull team with which he's won four World Championships, Vettel also pulls in a large retainer from Infiniti, which sponsors both the team and himself personally. In departing Red Bull, he'd undoubtedly have to sever the tie with Infiniti as well.

LaFerrari testing with turbo V6 F1 engine?

If Ford went and tested a NASCAR engine in a production Ford Fusion, it'd just be silly. Ferrari testing its new 1.6-liter, turbocharged V6 Formula One engine in a LaFerrari hypercar is not silly - it's excellent.
Now, we can't be certain if the video shown above is actually Ferrari's new F1 powerplant. Based on the big roof-mounted intake, the weird sounds coming from the camo'd LaFerrari and the teasers we've been hearing from other F1 engine providers, the race engine is a tantalizing idea.
The other possibility, perpetuated by our friends over at Road & Track, is that Ferrari is using the LaFerrari to test a next-generation powerplant. That looks good on paper, but this car strikes as being far too loud for any road legal engine. What do you think? What's Ferrari up to at Fiorano? Scroll down for the video and then let us know in Comments.

Ferrari makes its return to Need For Speed: Rivals in a big way

With all the excitement over Forza Motorsport 5 and Gran Turismo 6, it's easy to forget that there's another racing game from an even older franchise coming out. The latest Need For Speed installment, Rivals, is set to hit stores November 15 (this Friday) for the Playstation 4, November 19 for PS3 and XBox 360, and November 22 for the XBox One. As part of the run up to the launch, we have a great look at all the new Ferrari content for the new title, which marks only the second time the Italian marque has been in an NFS game.
The last time we saw a prancing horse in Need For Speed was 2009's Shift, when we got ten models as part of a paid, downloadable pack. In anticipation of Ferrari's return to the series, we've got a gallery of images of some of the featured models, like the F12 Berlinetta (which we've shown you before), the FF, the Enzo, the 599 GTO and both the 458 Italia and Spider. All of which are bound to make for phenomenal tools for escaping the virtual cops.
We'll have a more extensive look at Need For Speed: Rivals in the near future, but until then, have a look at the game's Ferrari content up top.