Ronnie Kessel: Handing Down Excellence From Father To Son

This is the story of a special family that has made the passion for cars the foundations on which to build relationships, emotions and visions, as well as a profession. Today it represents the most prestigious car brands, supporting them and making them a success on the track too. With the “Biscione” always in its heart…

Words Alessandro Giudice

Photography Alessandro Barteletti

Video Andrea Ruggeri

“Driven by Heritage” is a project exploring the stories behind Swiss excellence, created in partnership with Astara - the official importer and distributor of Alfa Romeo cars in Switzerland.

Memories are expressed in different ways. Sometimes all that is needed is a perfume or even a bad smell, a passing shadow that lights up the heart or sends shivers down your spine, or again, some music, a colour, a tactile sensation. Like the cold metal pipes of the roll bar that Ronnie, the seven-year-old heir of a family devoted to cars, gripped onto as he clung to the prototype sports car his father Loris Kessel had just driven to the podium of the iconic circuit in Monte Carlo.

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But we will take a look at that later, because first of all we have to focus on the young Loris. Born and bred in Ticino, he began to race when he was just eighteen, in the Giulietta Spider his mum had gifted him and that he had souped up, wider axle tracks and bumpers included, for uphill races. This passion was impossible to contain, and took him straight to the Formula 2, and from there into the who’s who of car racing, the Formula 1. He raced in the RAM team Brabham, but things were not easy: technical and other problems delayed its development, despite Loris always giving it his all. His efforts won him twelfth place – his best position – in the 1976 Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder (where his fellow citizen Clay Regazzoni came second behind Lauda, both in a Ferrari), his only satisfaction being that he was in front of the host, Jacky Ickx, and a guy named Fittipaldi, at the starting line.

And if instead of a Brabham with a Ford Cosworth engine, even with the young Gordon Murray as race engineer, he had driven a 12-cylinder Alfa Romeo (i.e., the BT45 of the two Carlos, Reutemann and Pace) perhaps things would have gone better.

Because Loris always had a certain rapport with the Biscione, which he handed down to his son Ronnie (named after Peterson, a driver he greatly admired).

And here we return to the Principality where, in 1994, Enzo Osella, the Turin-based manufacturer of racing dreams, had held up the trophy that bore his name. The formula was quite simple: the cars were all the same, the PA20s designed and built in the factory in Piedmont, powered by a 3-litre V6 Alfa Romeo, racing around the bends of the most famous uphill races and the world's Formula 1 circuits, and were the opening races of some Grands Prix. Like the one in Monte Carlo, where Loris Kessel came third, deciding to give his son a very special gift: a lap of honour, of course at a tourist pace, around the bends of the Principality, sitting in the only place where a passenger, aside from the driver, could sit in an Osella: on the engine hood.

So, gripping the roll-bar tightly, the wind in his hair, he paraded around the Monte Carlo circuit, a kind of Formula 1 red carpet, with the stands packed with people applauding ahead of the actual Grand Prix. With all these ingredients it is hard not to fuel a passion that had already grown in the Racing Car workshop yard, in Grancia, a tiny municipality a few miles from Lugano, where the very young Ronnie drove a go-kart while his father sold, repaired and prepared racing cars, almost all of them Alfa Romeos. With a promise: “When you are tall enough to drive one of the cars we take out on the track, I’ll let you try one.”

And so soon enough, in 2003, Kessel Jr made his racing début.

It was in Hockenheim for the Ferrari Challenge, and Ronnie was in Germany at the wheel of a 360 because, in the meantime, from 1995 Maranello had appointed Loris to represent the brand in Ticino and he, a racing fan, had begun to help his clients race. That day, in Hockenheim, Ronnie was just 16 years old. “A record that I think still stands today,” he tells us, “I was the youngest driver to have taken part in a Ferrari single-make race.”

The racing continued hand in hand with studies and work, which increased thanks to the qualities and approachability of the eclectic and exuberant Loris. When Loris fell ill, Ronnie was still young, but he felt the responsibility of carrying on a task that the whole family had devoted all their love, passion and energies to since 1976.

With Ronnie, the Kessel Group consolidated its key activities, creating highly specialised units that, with the contribution of around 200 employees, worked in sales, servicing, restorations and maintenance of classic and, of course, sports cars.

The latter was a tradition considered to be the jewel in the Group’s crown: every racing weekend, the Kessel Racing team could be found on the track with at least 12 cars racing in 5 championships: European Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup, GT World Challenge EU (Endurance and Sprint Cup), Italian GT Endurance, Ferrari Challenge Europe. Without forgetting the Asian Le Mans Series, held in the winter months when racing stopped in Europe. The Kessel premises multiplied in Canton Ticino, with Grancia and Noranco, near Lugano, but also in Zug and Sihlbrugg, where the largest and most complex Ferrari sales and servicing centre in Switzerland had just been inaugurated.

In all this, Ronnie Kessel is a key figure for both clients and collectors. His racing experience helped him to understand and often anticipate the drivers’ needs. To avoid entering into direct competition with them, he even pulled out of the GT races, specialising instead in historic car races, including the Alfa Romeo Revival Cup, spending time with friends and fans in a more relaxed environment. “These races are fought to the last bend, and there are still many driving thrills, with a manual gearbox and heel-and-toe shifting.”

Ronnie raced in a former-Lucien Bianchi GTAm, but still had his mind set on a future in F1 and DTM.

To move in that direction, he bought an Alfa Romeo 179, a single-seater that in 1981 Bruno Giacomelli raced in. “I had the great honour of spending a lovely day with him in Modena, where we both drove the car,” Ronnie Kessel says. “To make sure that I was as efficient as possible, he gave me a few technical tips on the use, including that of cutting of the tip of my driving shoes to avoid getting my feet caught in the chassis when changing gear. I dreamed of driving it in Monte Carlo, where I had done a lap clinging onto my father's Osella.”

The Kessel Classic collection also includes four 155 DTMs, one for each of the seasons they raced in, from the 1993 “narrow” body with the large Alfa logo on the side, and the 1994 with the Martini coat, the 1995 orange Jaegermaster and the last 1996 red. “All fantastic cars, I’m sure some special races can be organised.”

The car racing culture, along with some infectious enthusiasm, are essential for creating a sense of empathy and trust among the clients, who feel protected and spoiled by someone who shares their passion.

“The most engaging part of my work is the community that has built up over the years with some old friends – people who saw the company grow – and new acquaintances made in very different fields: on the track, concours d’elegance, at the dealers, as well as during art fairs or fashion and design events. Being able to work all-round with cars helps you meet people with whom you often have many other interests in common in addition to cars.”

This is why Kessel organises some exclusive and thrilling events, destined to become iconic. Such as THE ICE, the concours d’elegance for classic cars held on the iced lake in Saint Moritz, which in just a few editions has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the international scene, combining an original mix of cars with the glamour of the town in Grisons.

All in all, “tailored” customer care expressed through highly professional sales and servicing, experience, craft skill and culture in restoration, logistics and technical support for racing adventures: bywords for an approach based on excellence.

What’s the secret? “One of the most precious lessons I learned from my father and that I strive to put into practice every day is that to be a good leader you have to be authoritative, not authoritarian. It is precisely due to this approach that I can count on the constant support of my team, and this support means that today we are able to turn ideas into concrete results, and always with an eye on the future.”