Former Motorsport star Zdenek Chovanec has died at the age of 21. Chovanec, who was born in Venezuela with Czech roots and lived in Portugal since his youth, passed away in Trofa, Portugal, where he was regarded as one of the country’s best young talents.
Formula 3 released a statement on Thursday to confirm Chovanec’s death and the motorsport world has since come together to pay tribute to the ex-Charouz Racing System driver. “Everyone at FIA Formula 3 is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Zdeněk Chovanec, who competed in the Championship in 2021 and 2022,” a statement from F3 read.
“Our thoughts are with Zdenek’s family, friends, and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”
Journalist Craig Woollard, who covered some of Chovanec’s F3 races, paid tribute to the former driver on X.
“Such tragic news,” Woollard said. “I remember covering Zdenek’s racing back in 2020 and 2021, including when he arrived in F3. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. It is far too young for someone to pass.”
Chovanec started kart racing in his Portugal homeland in 2018 and was soon transferred into formula racing, where he made the United Arab Emirates Formula 4 series and Italian Formula 4 Championship in 2020.
Then in 2021, Chovanec moved to the Euroformula Open and he was a regular points scorer in that competition. The following year he was promoted to Formula 3 as part of the F1 calendar with the Czech Charouz Racing System team.
But Chovanec didn’t score any points in F3 and turned his attention to endurance racing in 2023. He was scheduled to race the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Mercedes-AMG, but he withdrew from the programme after the test sessions.
His final career start came in September 2023 as he competed at his home circuit of Estoril in the LMP3 class of the Ultimate Cup Series for TS Corse.
In January 2025, he was listed among entrants at Fast Track Racing for a pre-season test at Daytona International Speedway for the ARCA Menards Series.