Zdeněk Chovanec López (born 9 October 2004), otherwise known as Zdeněk Chovanec Jr. or simply Zdeněk Chovanec, is a Czech- Portuguese-

Venezuelan Venezuelans (Spanish language, Spanish: ''venezolanos'') are the Citizenship, citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connect ...

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

, who most recently competed in the 2022 BOSS GP Series with MM International Motorsport, and the FIA F3 Championship with

Charouz Racing System Charouz Racing System (CHRS, also was known as Lotus in World Series Formula V8 3.5) is a racing team from Czech Republic, created in 1985 by . History In the 1980s, Charouz participated in the European Championship of Circuit Races' 1600 ...

. He raced with

Double R Racing Double R Racing is a motor racing team, which last raced in the 2023 F4 British Championship. The team was formed in November 2004 as Räikkönen Robertson Racing by then McLaren Formula One driver and world champion with Scuderia Ferrari, Fer ...

in the

Euroformula Open Championship The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

in 2021, and made the switch to FIA F3 with

prior to round five of the championship, following

Reshad de Gerus Reshad Jean de Gerus (born 1 July 2003) is a French racing driver from Réunion, currently competing in the European Le Mans Series for Duqueine Team. Early career French F4 Championship De Gerus drove in the French F4 Championship from 2018 t ...

' departure from the team. Chovanec has previously competed in the 2020 Italian Formula 4 championship.

Early career

Karting

Originally from the Czech Republic but born in

Puerto la Cruz Puerto La Cruz () is a port city located in Anzoátegui State, in Venezuela. It is the seat of the Juan Antonio Sotillo Municipality. The city has road connections to the state capital, Barcelona, to Lecheria and to Guanta. Geography The cit ...

, Venezuela, Chovanec started karting professionally in 2018 at the age of 14, fairly late compared to other drivers.

Lower formulae

2020

In early 2020 Chovanec made his car racing debut, competing with Xcel Motorsport in the 2020 Formula 4 UAE Championship. He was 7th in the standings with two podium finishes. He then went on to race with

Bhaitech Bhaitech Racing (sometimes stylised as BhaiTech Racing) was an Italian automotive research and development service provider and motorsport team. History Racing Bhaitech made its racing debut in 2012, contesting the Italian GT Championship using ...

in the

Italian F4 Championship Italian Formula 4 Championship is the first formula racing series regulated according to Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA Formula 4 regulations. The inaugural season was the 2014 Italian F4 Championship, effectively replacing the F ...

, finishing 17th in the championship with 18 points.

2021

Chovanec started 2021 stepping up to the

F3 Asian Championship The Formula Regional Asian Championship was an FIA-certified regional Formula 3 racing series, which started in 2018. On 26 January 2018 it was confirmed that pan-Asian promoter Top Speed would organise the championship. Despite using Formula R ...

for the first round of the season with BlackArts Racing, and scored points in only his third race. He later signed with

to compete in the

. After five rounds in which he generally was a backmarker, he moved to

to take part in the remaining five events of the 2021 FIA F3 season, replacing

. He achieved a best finish of 20th twice and finished second last in the championship.

2022

In 2022, Chovanec drove for MM International Motorsport in

BOSS GP The BOSS GP Racing Series is a motor racing series in Europe. The category originated in 1995 as the BOSS Formula series and evolved into the EuroBOSS Series. BOSS is an acronym that stands for Big Open Single Seaters. History The BOSS serie ...

. Chovanec also drove for

in his return to the 2022 FIA F3 season in

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

, replacing

Lirim Zendeli Lirim Zendeli (born 18 October 1999 in Bochum) is a Germans, German-born racing driver of Albanians in North Macedonia, Macedonian-Albanian descent. He currently competes in Porsche Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Italy for Ombra Racing, having ...

. He was retained at

Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

, where in the feature race he was involved in an accident with teammate Francesco Pizzi, as the Italian spun Chovanec out of the race. However, for the Budapest round, Chovanec was replaced by Christian Mansell. Chovanec ended the season 40th and last in the standings with no points.

Sportscar career

2023 season

The 2023 season would see Chovanec making a move to

sportscar racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for the GetSpeed Performance alongside Lance Bergstein and Aaron Walker in the Silver Cup class of the

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by Stéphane Ratel Or ...

. However, he withdrew from the season before the opening round.

Racing record

Karting career summary

Racing career summary

*Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 4 UAE Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Italian F4 Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Complete FIA Formula 3 Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Complete BOSS GP Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Complete Ultimate Cup Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chovanek, Zdeněk 2004 births Living people Bhaitech drivers BlackArts Racing drivers Charouz Racing System drivers Czech racing drivers Double R Racing drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers FIA Formula 3 Championship drivers Italian F4 Championship drivers Sportspeople from Puerto la Cruz Portuguese people of Czech descent Venezuelan racing drivers Venezuelan people of Czech descent UAE F4 Championship drivers 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen