Motor Sports: Formula 1 // NBA, the Playoffs // MLB: the Standings

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . // Motor Sports, Formula 1 // NBA, the Playoffs // MLB, the Standings . . . // Formula 1---OKAY, you saw the film RUSH last year, so you know that Formula 1 (F1) motor racing is a most popular sport, second to soccer as the world’s richest and most viewed from stands and in front of TV sets. If the film hooked you and you performed some research, you also know that F1 Grand Prix (GP) races have been happening around the world for several generations and that every other weekend March through mid-November, 11 teams send two F1 cars and two drivers each to compete in 19 events in 18 countries, starting with the Australian GP, ending with the Abu Dhabi GP, including a U.S. F1 event that will take place this year at Austin, Texas, November 2. Unique about these races is that none occur on strictly oval racetracks, such as that for the Indy 500 and Nascar events. Instead, the F1 GP events occur on tracks similar to the design of real roadways, they include uneven though linear stretches and also angular distances and exceptionally hard turns, dips, etc., with a single F1 GP race being anywhere from 50 to 60 laps amounting to between 250 and 320 miles in distance, the F1 cars averaging between 130 and 180 mph along the linear. Also, F1 is unlike other motor sports from its universality. Though each F1 team is privately owned, they come from a large assortment of countries, as examples, Team Ferrari (Italy), Red Bull (Austria), McLaren (the U.K.), Honda (Japan), Sauber, Renault (France), Team India, Team MaRussia, their drivers from numerous countries, as well, and not necessarily from the country that a team is from. But this year is different from all other F1 years because of required major changes to engines and energy efficiency, to aerodynamics and so car configuration, to cockpit and brake demands and re. new tire requirements, therefore a year different in that each team has had to enter F1-2014 with new or dramatically reconstructed F1 cars and with drivers new to the alterations. Calling the current F1 season an experiment in ground vehicle power resulting from innovative construction and the marriage of various materials is far from verbal fabrication, and the observed results could exist within the next generation of privately owned vehicles. Among the year’s F1 requirements are a switch from V-8 to V-6 engines packaged with formulated electrical systems so that F1-2014 cars can meet the hybrid challenge successfully. Too, there’s a new limit on amount of fuel that an F1 car can contain per race (35 percent less than in recent years), and a new regulation has called for means capable of capturing, holding and re-using energy that can escape mostly from brake applications (Whenever a foot goes from gas pedal to use of brakes, a certain amount of energy seeks the atmosphere and so has been wasted but today can be held and re-used), also there’s mandatory employment of tires that can meet nearly all weather and surface conditions. Too, from dropping the nose shape of the F1 car this year, and narrowing the position of the car’s front wings while requiring a smaller rear wing, and there being minimum allowed car weight to 691 kilograms from 642 kg’s, all will reduce downforce and increase torque, allowing for faster yet more controllable gear shifting for the deep turn and for moving into imagined lanes right or left at higher speeds. So far, three F1-2014 GP events have occurred, the Australia, Maylaysia and Bahrain GP’s. This weekend is the China F1 GP, to be followed in May by the Spain and Monaco F1 GP weekends. Ahead in the championship competition so far, that’s Team Mercedes (U.K.), the drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, both F1 veterans . . . NBA---THIS week marks the end of another NBA regular season and the closest for team selection for 2013/14 playoffs and a shot at the year’s NBA championship title. Of the 30 NBA franchises, 16 (eight per conference) will be in said playoffs for rounds of play and then the finals. If we go only from end of the regular season findings, a guess that the now Western Conference-Southwest 62-19 San Antonio Spurs will represent the NBA Western Conference in final games is rational yet slightly suspect with the West’s 58-23 Oklahoma City Thunder close at the Spurs heels and the West’s 56-24 L.A. Clippers just two games back of the Thunder, therefore either of these three positioned for final games versus the East’s Central Division 55-26 Indiana Pacers or the East-Southeast’s 54-27 Miami Heat. While seeking the top of the West, the Spurs will be in a mix of challenges involving the Thunder, Clippers, the 54-27 Houston Rockets and the 53-25 Portland Trail Blazers, the 49-31 Golden State Warriors and the 49-32 Dallas Mavericks, while within the East the Pacers and the Heat will be in a mixing bowl comprising the 48-33 Toronto Raptors and 48-33 Chicago Bulls, the 44-36 Brooklyn Nets, 43-38 Washington Wizards, the 42-39 Charlotte Bobcats and the 37-44 Atlanta Hawks. In other words, the now top leading NBA franchises could get knocked out of the playoffs by teams that finished lower in regular season standings---in this regard, the NBA playoffs are nearly a clean slate, though set for an elite, for a collective of the 16 teams that made it to top positions within their conferences, but definitely for viewers the flames of professional basketball turned up highest and lasting into June. The conservative take for now is the Spurs and Pacers or Heat battling for the NBA championship title . . . MLB---EXCEPT for the American League West’s Houston Astros being at fifth position from having won but five of 13 games played to date, and the NL East’s Miami Marlins being at last place from a 5-9 record, the MLB clubs at the bottom of their respective divisions are a surprise against the run of pre-season predictions, for example, 2013’s World Series winning team, the Boston Red Sox, are in last place of the AL East today, at 5-8 no different than the Astros. Also expected to be in a better way after two weeks of play within the AL are the AL Central’s last place 4-7 Kansas City Royals, also the AL Central’s fourth place and 6-7 Cleveland Indians, and the AL West’s fourth position 6-7 Texas Rangers. Bottom of the pile surprises within the National league are the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, last place, 4-11 (worst in either league), and the NL Central’s last place 4-8 Cincinnati Reds. But at the top, there isn’t a proportionate number of surprises. Of course, a surprise is that the NL Central’s leading team, the Milwaukee Brewers, they are the lead ball club re. both leagues at 10-3, but it isn’t a surprise that the AL West’s leading team, the 8-4 Oakland A’s, leads the AL today and holds third re. both leagues, or that the 7-6 N.Y. Yankees are leading the AL East, the 6-4 Detroit Tigers the AL Central, or that the 9-4 L.A. Dodgers are at first place within the NL West and second re. both leagues, meanwhile the 9-4 Atlanta Braves at the top of the NL East. END/ml