The return of Robert Kubica was a welcome sight to many in the Formula 1 world. But rumours suggest it might well be short-lived. Canadian newspaper Le Journal de Montreal reports that Williams is thinking about replacing him with Nicholas Latifi.

Kubica's story in 2019 has been painful, to say the least. Although he's not expected to finish in the points with the car he's got, rookie George Russell has beaten him in every Grand Prix.

The Canadian newspaper Le Journal de Montreal reports that the dream return is coming to an end. "According to our information, it's time for a big decision within the British team. Kubica apparently has a clause in his contract stating that he can be replaced during the season."

The rumoured replacement for Kubica is young Canadian driver Nicholas Latifi, their current reserve driver. He tops the Formula 2 championship.

Ferrari concedes 2019 car concept may be wrong

Ferrari has admitted that it may have got its car concept wrong this year, in the wake of its Spanish Grand Prix defeat.

The Italian outfit had hoped that an aerodynamic and engine upgrade introduced for Barcelona last weekend would help lift its form and allow it to beat Mercedes.

But it endured another tough weekend as Mercedes was untouchable and it failed to finish on the podium after Max Verstappen grabbed third place for Red Bull.Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto said an investigation was now under way to get to the bottom of its struggles, as he says the team may have to concede that the concept it adopted this year was wrong.

When the 2019 cars were launched, Mercedes and Ferrari took totally different paths with their front wing designs. Mercedes had opted for a high-downforce solution, while Ferrari had taken a route to better manage outwash and improve efficiency.

But with Ferrari aware that it was slower on all corners in Barcelona, it now has to urgently address what has gone wrong.

"We are losing a lot in each corner, not only in the last sector, it is each single corner we are slow," said Binotto. "[There is] quite a lot of understeer. Is that only downforce or is it more than that? That is something that we really need to analyse and understand.

"Any conclusion today will be a wrong conclusion. It will take some days to really have a proper analysis and try to understand: is it a matter of balance, is it a matter of downforce, is it maybe even car concept? I don't know. I think we do not have the answer and I would like not to go through it."

[...]

Formula 1 is delighted to announce that the Dutch Grand Prix returns to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship from 2020. An agreement has recently been signed between Formula 1 and Dutch Grand Prix – a partnership formed by SportVibes, TIG Sports and the Circuit Zandvoort – and will run for at least three years.

Furthermore, Heineken, one of the longstanding Global Partners of Formula 1, will be the Title Sponsor of the event.

Situated not far from the vibrant city of Amsterdam, Zandvoort is a major beach resort in the Netherlands, known for its long beach bordered by magnificent coastal dunes separating the North Sea from the track. The Circuit of Zandvoort has a long history as a Formula 1 venue, and over the coming months, the facility will be rebuilt with help from Zandvoort town council and several other partners. The track and the infrastucture will be modified in order to meet the standards laid out by the FIA in order to host a Formula 1 World Championship event.

When the 2020 race takes place, it will be the 31st Dutch Grand Prix to count as a round of the World Championship. It was first held in 1952, when it was won by a Ferrari, driven by Alberto Ascari, who went on to win the world championship that year. Apart from the Italian, there were a further 19 winners, of which 12 were also world champions. Jim Clark holds the outright record with four wins to his name. The last Dutch Grand Prix took place in 1985 and will return next year as Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2020.

Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO, Formula 1, said: “We are particularly pleased to announce that Formula 1 is returning to race in the Netherlands, at the Zandvoort track. From the beginning of our tenure in Formula 1, we said we wanted to race in new venues, while also respecting the sport’s historic roots in Europe. Next season therefore, we will have a brand new street race that will be held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, as well the return to Zandvoort, after an absence of 35 years; a track that has contributed to the popularity of the sport all over the world. In recent years, we’ve seen a resurgence of interest in Formula 1 in Holland, mainly due to the enthusiastic support for the talented Max Verstappen, as seen from the sea of orange at so many races. No doubt this will be the dominant colour in the Zandvoort grandstands next year.”

Jean Todt, President of the FIA, said: “I am pleased to see that Zandvoort will be part of the proposed calendar for the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship, and thankful for the hard work of Formula 1 to bring the sport back to the Netherlands. It is a circuit with a long and impressive history of competition and is a great challenge for drivers, and with the popularity of Max Verstappen I’m sure there will be a huge number of fans in attendance. There is now a lot of preparation needed to bring the circuit up to the required safety standards to host a Formula 1 race, and we will work towards this together with Formula 1, KNAF – the Dutch ASN – and the circuit organisation.”

Jan Lammers, DGP Sporting Director, said: “The Zandvoort Circuit is legendary and known worldwide and we’re delighted to see it host a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship once again. To meet the wishes of Formula 1 and the required standards of the FIA the circuit and infrastructure will be modernized within a few areas, with the work completed well ahead of the race in 2020. In addition, the municipality of Zandvoort has recently invested heavily to improve access to the municipality and the circuit.”

McLaren introduced its biggest upgrade of the season so far at the Spanish Grand Prix – which include a move towards the Ferrari front wing concept.

Valtteri Bottas topped the first morning of the two-day post-Spanish Grand Prix Formula 1 test for Mercedes.

From the outside, a Formula 1 team's design department would appear to be a very rational environment, where logic rules, and careful decisions are made based on science and research.

You might believe there is no place in this world for dogma or blind faith. But you would be wrong.

I am a senior aerodynamicist at a current F1 team. I cannot reveal my identity, for reasons previously explained, but I want to help you understand some of the key issues around the biggest performance differentiators in F1 design.

In reality, some decisions we face as F1 car designers are just too complex to be taken back to first principles and investigated. Teams simply don't have the time or resources to assess them fully.

As a result, some aspects of car design are taken as articles of faith, and the rest built upon them. In these situations, we look to the demigods of aerodynamics for guidance, and uppermost in the current design pantheon is Adrian Newey.

Newey is the chief technical officer of Red Bull, and his multitude of world championship trophies won with Williams, McLaren and his current team have rightly given him the status of one of the greatest designers in F1 history.

Newey's area of expertise is aerodynamics and his standing has meant features he has pioneered on his cars have been adopted by other teams. Often - because of the limited time created by the high-pressure demands of the job - without full scrutiny and investigation.

The thinking is simple - Newey's car features a specific design characteristic; Newey's car is fast; therefore that design feature must be the right one for another team to adopt.

One example of this, and of Newey's continued influence in F1, is the high rake angle employed by most teams up and down the grid.

What is rake?
When we talk about rake angle, we mean the difference between the ride height at the front of the car and the back. A low rake angle means the floor of the car is sitting very flat, a high one and the back of the floor is raised a long way off the ground.

What's particularly interesting is that, in current F1, Mercedes employ one approach - low rake - while Red Bull, Ferrari, and to a large extent the rest of the grid, go for high.

In some ways, then, this year's title fight is a face-off between Newey's high-rake design theory and Mercedes' low-rake one.

Mercedes and Ferrari
Mercedes and Red Bull
It might not look like a big difference, but Mercedes' low rake is a different design philosophy to all the other teams on the grid
The Newey influence
As you can see, some decisions can have so many knock-on effects that to truly assess which is the direction to go in you would need to design two whole cars.

Most F1 teams don't have anywhere near the resources to indulge themselves in that. And even those that do, such as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, have their hands tied by rules which restrict the amount of aerodynamic testing they are allowed to do.

All of which means judgement calls have to be made. On an aspect of design as fundamental as this, a team has to commit to an approach and design the rest of the car around it.

This is where the great technical directors and designers really come into their own. They are the ones who have consistently made the right calls on the big decisions and few, if any, can match Newey's record.

For many years, he has been the hot property in F1 and, as a result, has boosted the market value of those alongside him.

Teams, enthralled by Newey, have eagerly snapped up anyone who has worked closely with the great man. So his acolytes have found themselves in nearly every team on the grid.

In this way, the Newey philosophy has spread through F1, one aspect of which is using a high rake angle as a starting point for your design.

Newey has been pursuing high rake for 20 years or more. But it became a major trend from the early part of this decade, when his high-rake Red Bulls took four straight world title doubles with Sebastian Vettel.

Since then, more and more of the grid have been going high rake. This is now almost universal - with Mercedes the notable exception.

And that's what makes this so interesting, because Mercedes have won the last five constructors' and drivers' world championships.

Despite some preconceptions, their success has not been based solely on an excellent engine - generally the best from 2014 until this year - and a brilliant driver in Lewis Hamilton.

It is obvious from the GPS speed traces to which all teams have access that the Mercedes chassis is also of the highest quality.

Yet even with their extraordinary level of success, they continue to be the only team really trying a low-rake approach.

It is almost impossible to say for certain whether Mercedes' low-rake design leads to more or less ultimate performance. However, the fact no-one else is trying it, that the benefits of high rake are simply taken as gospel, shows the hold the cult of Newey has over F1.

Leyton House 1988
A Newey classic: his 1988 Leyton House nearly beat Ayrton Senna's all-conquering McLaren
What are teams trying to do with airflow?
The direction a team chooses can have a significant effect on the airflow around the car and an almost endless list of knock-on consequences.

Going back to aerodynamic first principles for a moment, the faster you can make the air go, the lower the pressure, and low pressure under the floor is downforce, sucking the car onto the road. The more downforce a car has, the faster it can go around a corner.

Now, at the speed F1 cars go, we aerodynamicists make the assumption that the air cannot be squashed or stretched. (In reality it can, but for our purposes we don't need to worry about this).

This means that if you want to increase the air speed you can do one of two things: increase the "mass flow" (the amount of air flowing past); or reduce the area you are forcing that air through.

Think of it like a hose pipe. If you want to make the water squirt out of the end faster, you can either open the tap - increasing the mass flow - or put your thumb over the end - forcing the water to rush faster through a reduced area.

Williams 1992
Another Newey classic: his 1992 Williams FW14 was unbeatable, powering Nigel Mansell to the title
Why is rake important?
Coming back to rake angle, the two approaches - high and low rake - are each favouring one of these things over the other to make the air flow as fast as possible under the floor as a whole.

High rake is a bit like turning up the tap. Because of the increased height at the back of the car, you effectively have a bigger diffuser - the upswept part of the floor at the back of the car between the rear wheels - which will be pulling lots of air through the underside of the car.

However, most of the floor is a bit further away from the ground than it would be with low rake, as if you have taken your thumb off the end of the hose a little.

A low-rake approach is the opposite. The low height of the back of the car results in a smaller diffuser area and so less air is pulled under the floor. But what air there is, is squeezed through a smaller gap with the whole floor sitting very close to the ground.

This may sound relatively straightforward at this stage but there are so many side-effects of this decision that it could change the way you design the whole of the rest of the car.

The diffuser will be designed differently depending on how high or low it is to the ground.
You would design your rear brake drums and suspension specifically to the set-up you chose.
The front wing design would be different because the rake angle brings it closer to or further away from the ground.
The balance of the car might change more or less in low-speed and high-speed corners, depending on the rake.
Your bargeboards, the upper bodywork, and the floor edges would all be different.
The list is endless, and this is before we even consider the mechanical design of suspension and steering systems.

McLaren 1998
Another Newey classic: his 1998 McLaren MP4/13 prevented Michael Schumacher from winning even more than he did. Mika Hakkinen won the title with it
A few technical extras
For those of you keen for more, read on as we discuss a few of the complexities of airflow with high and low rake.

In practice, one of the most critical things to consider is what is referred to as floor sealing. In my experience this is a bit of a catch-all term for talking about managing the airflow that comes off the sides of the floor, which we might be using to try to do a few different things.

One of these is trying to minimise the amount of air that is drawn under the floor from the sides.

Remember, we would like to accelerate the air under the floor as fast as we can, for as long as possible. To use another analogy, if you think of the airflow as a queue, and the diffuser as a gate through which people can pass at a set rate, you can see that the queue at the front of the floor will travel much faster if people don't keep pushing in from the sides.

Low rake can make this particular problem a little easier, as the smaller gap between the sides of the floor and the ground tends to impede air from going under the car.

On the other hand, high rake can be advantageous in another aspect of floor sealing - managing the rear-tyre wake.

Tyre wake, as we discussed in the last article, is the churning, turbulent air found behind the tyre, which we likened to the water behind a boat. Much like water, tyre wake will spread out behind the body that creates it. This is a problem because it has the effect of blocking the air exiting the diffuser, which we would like to be as large as possible to pull a lot of air under the floor.

In order to control the tyre wake, we try to direct vortices, which are spinning streams of air a bit like a mini tornado, towards the parts of the tyre where the wake is separating.

Red Bull 2011
Another Newey classic: his 2011 Red Bull RB7 totally dominated
This encourages the air to stay attached to the tyre longer and results in a smaller wake, which can have a completely transformative effect on the performance of the diffuser.

Components in this area of the car are so sensitive because the small changes to the air around the tyre which they produce can have such big knock-on effects on the tyre wake, and, as a result, on the performance of the diffuser.

We saw this in Australia when what looked like relatively minor damage to the corner of Hamilton's floor had a devastating effect on his race.

At high rake, because the floor is raised up nearer to where the circular tyre face is vertical, a given movement of the wheel up or down won't make the gap between the tyre and floor open up very much.

However, on a low-rake car, the floor sits lower against the tyre face. As the car goes around the track and sees the same movement up or down, the gap between tyre and floor will change much more. This can make the job of tuning the aerodynamic devices harder.

Those are just two examples of a multitude of issues that arise from a team's choice of design concept.

Rich Energy, the mystery sponsor of the Haas Formula One Team that only gets more mysterious with further research, became the subject of a recent copyright claim when British company Whyte Bikes noticed their logos looked oddly similar. In a scathing judgement this month, Rich Energy lost the case.

Rich Energy didn’t simply lose the case, though. The judge wrote a blistering description of how it went down from her point of view, saying she found some of Rich Energy CEO William Storey’s evidence to be “incorrect or misleading,” and that he was “involved in the manufacture of documents during the course of litigation to provide additional support for the Defendants’ case.”

That, of course, is just the tight summary.

Whyte Bikes announced the result of the case Tuesday, linking to a judgement from Judge Melissa Clarke of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales that concerns the Rich Energy logo on its products, website, advertising and sponsorship of the Haas team. The judge, essentially, concluded that while there was “no direct evidence” that Storey or the logo’s designer, Sean Kelly, saw Whyte Bikes’ logo during the design process, the logo qualifies as copyright infringement.

Storey, when asked for comment by Jalopnik, said Rich Energy intends to appeal the judgement and that the company is “focused on growing the business and this will not impact that one bit.”

“We are disappointed with the judgment as we felt the evidence strongly supported us and I know we designed independently,” Storey wrote via email. “Unfortunately any case like this is about an opinion of a third party.”

The logos are “strikingly similar,” the judge ruled. This goes against what Rich Energy claimed, that its logo is an independent design meant to reflect a modern take on the deer that live in a park in the English town of Richmond, where Rich Energy derives its name. That is, of course, the Rich Energy that is rebranded under Storey’s name. It’s complicated. A comparison of the two can be seen below:

The result of that conclusion, according to the judgement, is that Whyte Bikes will get a choice between damages and injunctive relief for the infringement—forcing Rich Energy to stop using its current logo, presumably—or “an account of profits at its election.” Jalopnik has reached out to Whyte Bikes to ask what its official choice will be, and will update this story when we hear back.

The judgement, however, said the company sought, among other things, “an injunction which would require the removal of the logo ... from the Formula 1 race car and website of the Rich Energy Haas Formula 1 motor racing team” with the claim. Jalopnik has asked the Haas team for comment, and will, again, update this story if we hear back.

But the copyright judgement is far from the most interesting part of it all—it was Judge Clarke’s description of how the case went.

The judgement said that while Judge Clarke found Whyte Bikes’ two witnesses to be “straightforward, credible and reliable witnesses” who assisted the court “to the best of their abilities,” she found Storey and Kelly to be “poor witnesses” and had concerns about their credibility—citing that she found there to be conflicting and inconsistent evidence from the defense, as well as what she determined to be “manufactured documentation.”

That manufactured document was created in 2018, according to the judgement, which was presented as a document “compiling together previously existing documents, created by or in the possession of [Staxoweb Limited, Kelly’s digital agency] before the time the Brand Document was put together.”

But here’s what Judge Clarke found via the judgement, emphasis ours:

The brand document, the judge wrote, “significantly undermined” her view of Kelly and Storey’s credibility.

Judge Clarke also said the defendants’ evidence of independent design was, at best, “confused and contradictory and purports to be supported by documents which are not what they seem,” and that they showed an “unreasonable unwillingness ... to even countenance the possibility that they might have seen, but forgotten” the Whyte Bikes logo.

Here’s an excerpt from the judgement, emphasis ours, with “C” relating to the Whyte Bikes logo and “D1” referring to the one for Rich Energy:

Judge Clarke also wrote of what she believed to be Storey’s “apparently natural tendency to exaggerate” and avoidance of some questions, emphasis ours:

The judgement, on that note, mentioned a press quote from Storey in February that said Rich Energy had produced 90 million cans. When asked about the quote, the judgement said Storey explained it as such:

Comparatively, Storey told Jalopnik earlier this year that Rich Energy had sold “in excess of 100 million cans” and that the number was “growing rapidly by the day.”

Judge Clarke, in the end, ruled that the logos are so similar that Rich Energy’s was “more likely to be the result of copying than coincidence,” but the conclusion is mild compared to the rest of her accounts of how this all went down—all of which can be read, in full, here.

Update: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 8:12 a.m. ET: A spokesperson for Whyte Bikes responded to Jalopnik, saying that the company will seek, in addition to damages, an injunction for “the removal of the infringing copy of our logo from all Rich Energy’s branding, including but not limited to the Haas F1 cars.”

The Haas team declined to comment on the situation, but Rich Energy released an official statement on Tuesday that reiterated what Storey told Jalopnik, in addition to saying the following:

Williams reserve driver Nicholas Latifi will get his first F1 free practice outing of the year at next month's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Latifi, who currently leads the FIA Formula 2 championship with DAMS with three wins under his belt, has just enjoyed two days of testing with Williams in Barcelona.

"Overall, I am pleased with the two days of testing and I look forward to my next outing with the team for FP1 at the Canadian Grand Prix," said the 23-year-old.

Montreal won't be the young Canadian's first official participation in a Grand Prix weekend, having ran in five Friday practice sessions with Force India in 2018.

Latifi's impressive launch to his F2 campaign and his involvement with Williams has led to speculation that he could possibly replace Robert Kubica later this year.

However, the Canadian insists he has had no talks with the Grove-based outfit on the subject.

"Of course my goal is to get into Formula 1, but my programme this year is focused on Formula 2," he said in Barcelona.

"That is my priority. I have to concentrate on maintaining my current form there and winning the championship.

"If I do that, I think I will find myself in a good position to go to Formula 1 next year.

"The season has just begun and a lot can happen. But if you look at the past, and those who won the Formula 2 and GP2 titles, I think most of them found themselves in Formula 1.

"From my point of view, if I win the championship, then my goal is an immediate transition to Formula 1."

Rumours swirled that Williams is discussing a potential driver swap with Robert Kubica being replaced by Nicholas Latifi. But now, last year's Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin has put his hand up.

Kubica has been beaten by his rookie teammate George Russell in every Grand Prix so far. Sirotkin says he'll be ready should Williams come calling.

"I am often asked about this. As a driver, I want to compete with the best drivers in the world in any car, no matter how good it is," Sirotkin told Russian news agency Tass.

Sirotkin is currently Renault's test driver and Cyril Abiteboul said he will do some testing later in the season. He discusses the important role he has on the future of Formula 1.

"My main task is to work on the car for 2021. The car for testing the 18-inch tyres will be ready by the end of September and I will do all the tests with this car. That's my key role," he added.

"Of course, with a team that has such a budget, effort and resources, much more progress and performance were expected [at Renualt]. I'm not going to say what exactly what goes wrong, but when there are no results or progress, the team is under pressure."

Nikita Mazepin has topped the timesheet for Mercedes in today's testing session in Barcelona. In his Mercedes F1 debut, the Russian racer set a 1.15.775s on the softest C5 tyre. He clocked 128 laps throughout the day and will hope that he impressed the team.

Mercedes remains the top team after the second day of testing in Barcelona. Mazepin put in an impressive performance finishing the day only 0.264s off fellow Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas's fastest time of the test overall, which was set yesterday.

Alexander Albon managed to put in another impressive performance in his Toro Rosso and finished the day 2nd fastest. A number of other young drivers made their Formula 1 debuts and will hope that they have done enough to be invited back again in the future.

Ferrari would have hoped that they could have finished the day faster than Mercedes but will have to wait for Monaco for an opportunity to try and beat Mercedes at something.

Williams have signed Britain’s Jamie Chadwick to their Driver Academy in the role of Development Driver. Chadwick, who has had success in single-seaters and sportscars, is currently leading the new W Series championship.

Her Williams role will see Chadwick, 21, fully immersed into the F1 team both trackside and in their UK factory at Grove. Alongside a busy simulator programme, she will attend three European races, starting at the British Grand Prix, and support the team in a number of media and marketing activities.

“It is a great honour to be joining the Williams Racing Driver Academy,” said Chadwick. “The time in the simulator is a fantastic opportunity to aid with my development. I look forward to spending time in the factory at Grove, immersing myself within the team and assisting wherever I can. Being a part of the Driver Academy is an amazing platform and I’m excited to get started.”

Chadwick claimed the British GT4 title in 2015, became a British Formula 3 race winner in 2018, won the MRF Winter Series in 2018/19, and was the inaugural winner of the first W Series race earlier this month - all historic firsts for a female racing driver.

“I am delighted to confirm that Jamie Chadwick has joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy,” said Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal, who witnessed first-hand Chadwick’s W Series victory at Hockenheim.

“Promoting women in motorsport is extremely important and having a female role model as part of our Driver Academy will hopefully inspire young girls to take up racing at a young age.

“We hope to show that motorsport is inclusive and exciting, be that as a driver or on the engineering side. Jamie is a great talent and I look forward to working with her.”

Chadwick joins Williams’ reserve driver Nicholas Latifi in the team’s Driver Academy.

The FIA has launched a tender for key elements of the fuel system, as it continues its push for standard Formula 1 components from 2021.

Lewis Hamilton believes that current Formula 1 is not physically challenging enough, and hopes that it will be made harder by rules changes for 2021.

Brazilian petroleum corporation Petrobras has been told to pull out of its current deal to sponsor the McLaren Formula 1 team.

And the order has come from no less an authority that the new president of the country, Jair Bolsonaro.

The national government holds almost two thirds of the shares of Petrobras, meaning that such an instruction constitutes far more than the usual political rhetoric - but has real power to be enforced.

“In 2018 Petrobras signed an advertising contract of R$782m with McLaren, valid for five years,” Bolsonaro tweeted this week. That sum in the Brazilian Real currency is equivalent to around £150 million.

“At the moment, the company, by decision of my government, seeks a way to terminate the contract," the president revealed.

The right wing politician has been instigating major political and economic change across the country since coming into the office at the start of 2019.

In motorsport, he's already ceased public support for the Seletiva de Kart, which has received financial backing from the government for the last two decades.

And last week Bolsonaro said that the Brazilian Grand Prix would continue to be held only if it switched from Interlagos in Sao Paulo to a new facility in Rio de Janeiro, where he himself resides.

Losing Petrobras's sponsorship would be a huge financial blow for McLaren, which is only now getting back on its feet after several years in the F1 wilderness.

But it's not clear whether Petrobras could actually pull out of the arrangement without incurring major penalty clauses in the process - possibly as big as the company's existing sponsorship commitments.

However McLaren is also increasingly reliant on Petrobras to supply key petrol and lubrication technologies to the F1 race team.

The team has been using Petrobras' transmission lubricant since the start of the current season, with more expected to follow over the course of the five-year deal.

Understandably in the circumstances, McLaren were unwilling to comment on the president's social media announcement.

“Such matters are commercially confidential and therefore we are not able to comment further," a spokesperson for the team said this week.

Niki Lauda is reportedly back in hospital receiving dialysis treatment for further kidney problems.

The 70-year old was recovering from a bout of flu last year and was aiming for a return to the F1 paddock soon until this latest setback.

Austrian newspaper Osterreich have reported that Lauda is in a private clinic in Switzerland.

Lauda’s brother Florian confirmed the news, saying: "Due to kidney problems, he had to be transferred from the rehabilitation centre to a private clinic for dialysis."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff added: "Niki has good weeks and also some setbacks.”