Antonelli reveals why quitting high school for F1 wasn’t an option

Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed his final high school exams just days after scoring his first Formula 1 podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes rookie, who skipped the New York premiere of the F1 movie in order to fly home to Italy, said he would have “felt guilty” if he quit studying because of his racing career.

“I’m super happy to have finished my exams,” Antonelli told reporters in Austria on Thursday. “Of course I had to miss out on New York, which I think would have been quite cool because I’ve never been there, and many people said it’s a really nice city.

“But at the same time I had to do something just as important: finishing this journey with school, because I’ve been studying and I’ve been doing the whole journey all the way up until now.”

The 18-year-old admitted that it was challenging juggling his studies with the pressures of racing on the world stage, but he remained committed to completing his academic journey.

“Quitting, especially on the last year of school, wouldn’t have been the best,” he said. “I would have probably felt guilty over the years, just for quitting right at the end.

“So I think it was important to push through, even though it’s not been easy, because to balance studying and racing, especially now in F1, has been very hard. But now I’m done, I’ve finished my journey, and I can focus and enjoy racing full time.”

Although Antonelli’s path has meant missing out on some typical teenage experiences, he said the sacrifices have been worth it.

“I’m not experiencing the life of an 18-year-old guy, but at the same time, I’m doing what I love to do,” he said. “I’m doing what I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid.”

In fact, he found it even more difficult to miss out on experiences with his friends when he was in junior karting: “I would suffer this, in a way, more when I was little, because in karting, I used to spend a lot of time away from home, and this meant I couldn’t go out with my friends, or missed birthdays or parties.

“But then over the years, I understood that these are sacrifices that are required, and especially if you have a strong passion for something, and you really love what you do, at the end of the day, you do these sacrifices and you don’t mind them at all.

“To be honest, now I don’t miss any of this, because I love to be at the track, I love to be around the team, and I love to drive an F1 car, so I think I’m super happy with what I’m doing.”