Never Off: Ronnie Kessel and the Long Way Forward
An Interview with Ronnie Kessel By Ollimono Magazine | Published 05/01/2026
There was a pivotal moment that never got photographed:
A young man standing outside a garage he had known all his life, except that day it felt different. The garage was the same. The name on the door was the same. The responsibility behind it had suddenly become real.
That young man, just about 22 years of age, was Ronnie Kessel. Now, years later, he is the owner and CEO of the Kessel Group, one of Switzerland’s most respected automotive and motorsport names. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a local operation with just about 40 people into an internationally recognised automotive group, employing over 200 people, spanning Ferrari, Maserati and Pagani dealerships, global GT racing programmes, and one of the most ambitious classic car restoration projects in the region.
But on that day, most of it didn’t exist yet.
What existed was pressure. And silence.
This is the story of Ronnie Kessel, a high-performer who turned inheritance into authorship, and responsibility into a lifelong form of motion.
“I wouldn’t call it hate. What I felt as a child was fear.”
Ronnie did not grow up dreaming of racing glory.
As a child, motorsport scared him. Watching his father, former Formula 1 driver Loris Kessel, race in an era when safety was far from guaranteed made the danger impossible to ignore. Crashes were real. Consequences were visible and deeply felt.
“I was very young,” Ronnie says. “The risks felt overwhelming.”
And yet, something else was always there too. Fascination. The sound of engines. The rhythm of the paddock. The strange gravity of the track.
Fear and curiosity lived side by side for years.
The shift came naturally the first time he drove himself.
“In that moment, I felt an immediate connection,” he says. “I understood my father’s passion had become my own.”
That connection quickly turned into something tangible. Ronnie entered competitive racing at an unusually young age, when he was just 14 years old. And at 16 he was already competing in Ferrari Challenge, becoming the youngest person to ever compete in an official Ferrari championship. At that time, it was the next step in learning what motorsport truly demands from the inside.
One race, however, carried a deeper meaning. At the International GT Open round on the Valencia street circuit, Ronnie shared the cockpit with his father in the Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3, and they finished strong in class. Two generations sharing the same track, the same corners, the same discipline. For Ronnie, it was a moment that sealed the transition. Motorsport was no longer something that inspired fear. It had become something personal, earned, and fully his.
“I once imagined myself in a big international company.”
Before life accelerated, Ronnie was studying a Business major and had other plans for his life.
Marketing fascinated him. Brand building. Strategy. Creativity at scale. He imagined gaining experience inside large international companies, learning how global brands are shaped from the inside. Apple was one of them.
Maybe it was an early dream? The question of “what if” is not worth keeping in mind anyway … Because very soon, everything changed before Ronnie had a chance to try another path.
“In very little time, I found myself with responsibilities I was only partly prepared for.”
Loris Kessel was a former Formula 1 driver, but he also was the founder of the Kessel business, a respected figure in European motorsport, and the leader of a company built over decades.
When he passed away, Ronnie had to step in fast.
“At the beginning, it was anything but easy,” he says.
Inside the company, people had been there for ten, twenty, sometimes thirty years. Outside, partners and manufacturers were watching closely.
Would he make it?
Would he protect the legacy?
Would the company survive this transition?
Forty jobs were at stake. Forty households. A name that meant something.
This is the part people often underestimate. Leadership does not start with strategy. It starts with mental pressure.
It echoes a truth that returns in every high-performer story we tell: achievement follows those who can sustain mental pressure long before they can control outcomes.
“The real challenge wasn’t earning their trust. It was learning to trust myself.”
Ronnie was young and inexperienced, surrounded by people who had spent decades inside the company. Trust did not come automatically, doubt existed on all sides, and mistakes were unavoidable. He was fortunate to learn many things directly from his father, and to have a team around him that showed patience, shared their knowledge, and allowed him the time to grow into the role.
Over time, he began to understand how the team functioned, where knowledge already existed, and where his own perspective could add value. One of his father’s lessons stayed close during that period, that leadership should be authoritative and grounded in responsibility, not authoritarian. Through experience, Ronnie learned that authority grows from consistency, clarity, and accountability, including the willingness to recognise mistakes and learn from them. This process shaped his understanding of high-performance as the ability to build and sustain valuable relationships under pressure, and it became a defining element of how he led the company forward.
“Switching from driver to team manager changed everything.”
Ronnie truly and deeply loved racing, but as he stepped into the leadership role, he realised something had to give.
“It’s like a football player becoming a coach,” he says.
To build something bigger than himself, he needed to be fully present. Competing would have pulled him away.
So he stopped racing competitively.
The energy did not disappear. It transformed.
Under Ronnie’s leadership, Kessel evolved into a fully integrated automotive group structured around four pillars, C.A.R.S.: Classic, Auto, Racing, Service.
Not four separate businesses. One ecosystem.
Picture Credit: Courtesy of Kessel
“The Classic department is something I feel deeply connected to.”
Of all the projects within the Kessel Group, Kessel Classic carries the strongest personal meaning for Ronnie. The idea first came to his father during a race, almost casually, something mentioned in a passing. Ronnie carried that thought with him for years. What began as a small workshop gradually developed into a dedicated division where historic Ferraris and Italian vintage cars are restored with care, and youngtimers are preserved with attention to their long-term value. Today, Kessel Classic brings together craftsmanship, sustainability, and advanced technology, and this spring Ronnie will open a brand new showroom and garage dedicated entirely to the Classic division, marking an important step in its evolution. “That’s where heritage meets modernity,” Ronnie says.
One restoration remains especially memorable. A Ferrari 275 GTB/4, significant not only for the car itself, but also for its owner, Horacio Pagani. Working on that project meant engaging deeply with Ferrari’s history, and when the car received Ferrari Classiche Best of Show at Cavallino Classic in Modena last year, it confirmed that the direction behind Kessel Classic was resonating beyond the workshop.
“The I.C.E. is the purest expression of my passion.”
What started inside the Classic workshop eventually found a wider stage.
The I.C.E. St. Moritz was born from an image. Vintage cars driving across a frozen lake. Elegant. Calm. Alive.
The idea came from Ronnie’s dear friend, Marco Makaus, who was inspired by a moment he witnessed decades earlier. “Back in 1985, while in St. Moritz, Marco witnessed a group of drivers take their vintage Bentleys onto the frozen lake to celebrate the centenary of the Cresta Run skeleton race. That powerful, almost surreal image stayed with him, and he began dreaming of recreating it on a larger scale.” It took years before the first edition launched in 2019.
“Marco knew how deeply I shared his passion for classic cars, and how Kessel Classic was becoming a central part of my own journey. He had to get me involved. Eventually, The I.C.E. is a project born from genuine passion, and it naturally reflects the spirit of Kessel.”
Cars are meant to live.
Picture Credit: Courtesy of The I.C.E. St. Moritz - The International Concours of Elegance
“Never off.”
If the boy who once feared racing walked through the new Classic workshop today, Ronnie believes he would feel surprised.
Nothing about this journey was predictable.
And yet, here he is.
The company still carries his father’s name. But today, it also carries Ronnie’s imprint. Bigger. More ambitious. Deeply respectful of its roots.
Would life have unfolded differently if he had taken another path? Maybe.
What is certain is this: the Kessel Group would not be what it is today without that young man choosing to step forward when everything was at stake.
The responsibility that once stood silently outside that garage door has now taken shape.
Never off.
Never stop.
Always moving forward.
Quick-Fire with Ronnie Kessel:
- First car you ever drove? – Ferrari 360 Modena
- All-time favorite racetrack? – Spa-Francorchamps
- Your dream passenger for a long drive? – Andy Warhol
- Your go-to drink order? – Matcha latte
- Most unforgettable race you were a part of / watched? Why? – 24 hours of Le Mans / formula 1 – a GT Open race at the Valencia street circuit in 2008, when I raced alongside my father
- Favourite city to recharge and be inspired? – St. Moritz
- What’s your idea of the perfect Sunday? – On track, driving
- One rule you live by in business or in life? – “Never Off”
- What does a “high-performance” life mean to you personally? – Building valuable relations