Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2017 [May 18-21]

[Mirek]

Kopecky did 6 WRC 2 events (the same number than Tideman) with Skoda last year and ended in 4th. He’s far from being unbeatable on tarmac (lost to Lappi in Germany and Evans in Corsica) and with so many gravel events probably it won’t be easy for him to do better. https://www.ewrc-results.com/profile/67-Jan-Kopecky/

Fair enough, I forgot he did more events last year. Yes, he lost with Evans fair and square in Corsica (let's not forget Evans was second overall in Corsica a year before) however in Germany he lost because he had to change tyre on SS2 (+1:42 in SS2, +1:07 in finish). But ok, it's part of the game.

Obviously he’s a Czech driver and it must be a bit sad for Czech fans to see his seat being taken by Mikkelsen

I don't think Mikkelsen took anyone's place. IMHO they never planned to send Kopecký for full WRC2 in 2016 anyway.

but what’s a bit more surprising is to see Skoda being unable to bet on new, young and talented Czech drivers (for sure there should be a few that deserve it), giving them chances to become future champs, just like they’re doing with Veiby and have done with all the other Even drivers in the past. (Or maybe I’m wrong and they’re already doing it; if so who’s the driver?)

Here I agree with You. On the other hand it's difficult to bet on someone from young Czech drivers now. I have a problem myself to point a finger on someone. I would probably try Kamenec but so far he only did Adam Cup with half-stock small cars...