Jan Kopecký can't help but win Barum Rally Zlín. But it's his attitude to his career that's perhaps most interesting
Photography by Red Bull
Words by Luke Barry
Brilliantly balancing pace with patience, expertly eking out a defendable advantage, picking his stage to pounce and utilizing all of his experience to perfection, it was nothing short of a lesson in how to win a rally.
Sébastien Ogier, is that you?
Not in this case. Not when the battlefield is Czechia’s Barum Rally Zlín. In Barum, only one man is king.
But he’s nevertheless flattered by the Ogier comparison when DirtFish puts it to him.
“It seems I’m just in the old school maybe, like Sébastien,” Jan Kopecký smiles.
It’s Thursday when DirtFish picks up the phone – four days on from the Czech legend’s latest triumph in the European Rally Championship. But Kopecký’s not polishing his trophy or basking in glory, instead cutting the grass as he takes time to mull over what a record-extending 12th Barum win means.
However let’s begin by continuing with the Ogier observation, because it has more legs than you’d perhaps first think.
Kopecký has achieved incredible things over a long and distinguished career, almost exclusively with Škoda.
“Škoda is me,” he laughs. “I can say that Škoda is part of my DNA.”
So after a WRC2 title, European title, Asia Pacific title and no less than 10national titles in his homeland, what keeps the 43-year-old motivated?
“Basically, I’m in the situation that I don’t have to win,” Kopecký ponders. “But I want it.”
Remind you of anyone?
Ogier has nothing left to prove, yet he’s joining the WRC on its South American leg next week because he can. For Kopecký, the level’s perhaps not as high – his ERC Barum appearance only happened because it was also a round of the Czech championship – but he’s equally driven by, and capable of, winning.
“Let’s say like this: if I start [Barum] next year, I want to win. If I start in 2027, for sure, I’m not going there to be second or third,” he says.
“You know, it’s not my job, for sure. It’s my hobby. But I want to just keep it on the professional level. And if I find myself that I have no chance to just basically fight for the podium or fight for the first place, then I just quit. That’s easy.”
Many could wonder why Ogier doesn’t just compete full time for Toyota in the WRC, given 2025 is the second season in succession the eight-time champion has ended up going for the title despite missing events.
But the answer is simple, as he explained as recently as Rally Finland.
“I have no regret that I don’t really start the season fighting for championships anymore,” Ogier told DirtFish, “because the time I have at home I really enjoy so much and I think that’s priceless.”
Kopecký is fighting for a championship, but not the European one. Not the WRC. He says he would take on that challenge if an opportunity arose, but although he’s still a contracted test driver for Škoda Motorsport his competitive efforts in a Fabia RS Rally2 are privately funded.
And his family is there with him every step of the way. Ensuring his rallying fits around his family commitments is vital, just like Ogier.
Kopecký explains: “For sure, I’m happy to do at least the Czech championship because I have a beautiful wife and two kids. And you know, if you would go somewhere else, for example, to the European championship or WRC championship, you are just out of your family.
“And the time is running very quickly and I want to see my sons grow up. That for me… it’s very important. It’s also really nice that they are attending every rally with me. They are coming for sure on Friday or Saturday, but they are there and this is important for me.”
Kopecký has enjoyed some fantastic times behind the wheel, not least fighting in the thick of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge’s heyday and winning WRC2 in 2018. But with this new, family-orientated approach to his rallying, he’s able to enjoy himself more.
“Basically yes,” he says. “I’m enjoying my stay behind the driving wheel because we are just a private team so it means that we have to find the money for that, the budget and basically this I’m doing only by myself with some sort of help of my father.
“So these discussions and meetings, it takes a long time to find the budget and basically if I sit in the car I’m very happy. It’s a big difference if you are just in the factory team or if you have to make it by yourself. It takes a lot of energy, a lot of energy.”
But when the effort is higher, so is the reward.
There’s an air of inevitability about Kopecký winning Barum (like Ogier in Monte Carlo) but the man himself wasn’t convinced by his own prospects prior to 2025’s edition.
The previous year had been his first defeat in the ERC there for over a decade (albeit not helped by punctures), yet as it happened Kopecký took the lead on SS2 and didn’t look back.
“I didn’t expect that we could basically lead the rally from the second stage ’til the end,” Kopecký admits. “And for sure I wanted to win it, because if you don’t want, it will not happen, that’s for sure. “But I was quite surprised with my pace, honestly.”
It was an impressive display against a horde of youngsters all on the attack and desperate to dethrone the king.
“Yeah – and they just want to kill my head, you know!” Kopecký laughs. “That’s quite simple, you know. Because I was basically in the same situation when I was young.
“The local hero was Roman Kresta and Václav Pech, with WRC cars. My motivation was just to cut their heads off – it’s like this. So I guess it’s the same for the young drivers now.”
They came close, but left with no cigar. Maybe what was most surprising was the Podhoran stage, which was new even to Kopecký. And yet that’s where he made his rally-winning move on the final morning – beating Jon Armstrong by 1.6s and the rest by over 6s.
“I was very surprised. And I think the fact is that nowadays everyone has onboards of everyone, let’s say like this. So they can teach, they can learn, they can basically like do it like on circuits if they can manage the handling of the car.
“But if there is something new and you don’t know the onboards then you need to use your notes and your confidence and it was working well, very, very well for me. I was very happy about that.
It’s basically coming from WRC championship and also European Championship, I have enough experience for it.”
Kopecký’s an advocate for rallying in its purest form, where it’s less about studying and more about driving. Ogier, funnily enough, is the same.
“These new days are a little bit strange for me because I’m older, that everyone is just using onboards, onboards, onboards,” says Kopecký. “You see the young drivers, they are just spending a lot of time in front of their notebooks and phones etc. But this I don’t like.
“I think the rally is about having a note and you have to drive [to it]. Then it basically is that you trust yourself because you are making your notes by yourself. That’s easy. It’s very simple for me.”
What’s evident is Kopecký has found that enviable sweet spot of operating at a devastatingly high level, but answering to nobody but himself when it comes to pressure and expectation.
I’ve labored the point, but that description fits Ogier to a tee.
And that desire to be the best isn’t set to change either.
“Never,” Kopecký grins.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Barum Rally Zlin, ERC, ERC 2025, Jan Kopecky, Sébastien Ogier
Publish Date August 23, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/avpk087G-SI202508170450-780x520.jpg August 23, 2025
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