Kessel Group CEO: Ronnie Kessel – Motorsport, Family Legacy, & The Pursuit of Perfection On And Off The Track

0:00The Gstaad Guy:We are just one hour from Lugano, where you live. One hour from Lugano, one hour from Zug. Actually, it's very, very central. Andermatt, it's very well located. I love Andermatt. It's a nice place. Thank you so much for commuting all the way here. I had the pleasure of meeting you for the first time somewhere else in Switzerland. Three years ago, when I went to the ICE in St. Moritz for the first time. Exactly. Where you, for those who don't know and haven't seen my content about it, you create a classic car race and concorde elegance basically on the frozenst moritz lake crazy insane that was crazy i think it's still crazy and some people doesn't believe you know that actually this is existing or actually that it's on a frozen lake but it is i think it's one of the yeah of the specialties of this event to be on the frozen lake a place that actually for more than eight months a year doesn't exist it's crazy yeah amazing and we've had all the elements try to shut the race down you had too much snow not enough snow the lake is melting every fear but it worked out amazingly well this last year so yeah it's i think this is part of of why this this event it's it's very uh appreciated yeah because it's like you know any other outdoor So, revenge, you never know till the moment you dare whether it's going to happen or not.

1:26Let's say I've been particularly unlucky in the last years, especially with this very heavy snowfall. But I think this year, so last February, we managed to get a good revenge and we look forward for the next year. I love it.

1:38The Gstaad Guy:Around the world with your host, the Stad Guy, we welcome you back to the Stad Guy podcast, sharing stories of excellence with those in the know for those who just know. The ice is such a small part of who you are and such a small part of what you do. I think you are the classic car guy. You're not classic cars, but like you're such a car guy. Racing, collecting, restoring, selling. Yeah, thank you. I mean, this is my passion. It's actually what I inherited from my father. my father was racing in Formula 1 actually back in 1976 as though someone would say when sex was safe and racing was dangerous and yeah from there he just decided to open his dealership Lugano where the entire family is coming from and this is what basically left me back 15 years ago and where I decided basically to focus because with this passion for cars I still remember when I was three, four, five years old, following my father on the paddock during his racing.

2:49It was an amazing time. And I think this, you know, this motorsport, those engines really enter into my blood now. And today this is what I'm living for.

3:00The Gstaad Guy:That's beautiful. So you were about 14 years old when you started racing yourself. Yeah, exactly. So I actually wanted to start racing before because it's normal, you know, when you are like, start to understand a little bit more about passion, you are a boy, either it's football, either it's, you know, cars, and for me it was clearly cars. And I've been asking to my father, I would really love to go racing, maybe you can buy me a go-kart, I can try to enter into this Formula One world, Formula One, Formula Three, Formula Four world, to try to aim and to achieve, you know, like everyone is dreaming for a Formula One.

3:38The truth is that my father always wanted me to be focused on studies and also he was trying not to lose me from the family business. Today, I have to say I'm very grateful to him because I then started when I was 14. Let's say he made me a promise that as soon as I was tall enough to enter into one of our GT cars, one of our Ferrari, back then was the 360 Modena, he would have taken me to the racetrack. I have to say I kept the promise when I was 14 years old I went racing I had to obtain the racing license in France because back in France it was possible to get the racing license even if you are not 18 years old and I managed to start racing at the age of 14 or 15 I don't remember exactly the first race of the Ferrari Challenge as the youngest driver ever into one of those cars so it was quite exciting

4:33The Gstaad Guy:That's crazy. And what was it like to be in an F1 family as a son of an F1 racer as a kid? Because today I'm a big F1 fan. I think lots of people are now fans and also very exposed to the behind the scenes and the lives of the drivers. Thanks to social media. Thanks to Drive to Survive. And they all look like young bachelors in relationships, but they don't look to the outside world like they have families behind closed doors. but you come from a family where your father was an F1 driver. What was that like? Yeah, it was amazing. At the same time, it was also scary because what I have to say is that at the very beginning, when my father was still racing up to a very competitive level, I was scared because, you know, every two weekends he was coming home and saying, unfortunately, that driver passed away.

5:29he had a back crash, he got injured, he's going to be on a wheelchair. So back then it was really dangerous, the modus board. And I think that this was not nice when it comes to the relationship I was having with automotive. But then, you know, as soon as you sit inside a car and you start feeling this vibration of the engine, you understand that, you know, even if it's dangerous, it's worth it, the risk you are taking. But I have to say, when it comes to Formula 1, the world has been changing quite a lot. If you just compare the two recent movies, even the Formula 1 movie that was recently launched or Rush, you can see that the former drivers, I'm talking of the drivers of the 70s, used to be older, maybe on their 30s, 40s.

6:20while today at the age of 18, 20, you start racing in Formula 1. We can name a lot of drivers that we all know. So it has been changing. I think that the skills are a little bit different. Why is that? Why is it now a lot younger? I think that generally speaking, when it comes to sport, every sport has become more sophisticated. It requires more training. and if you start at a younger age to practice your passion, it might be that you get into Formula 1 a little bit earlier. Before, just to make an example that we have in the family, my father, my father got this very forced car when he was 18.

7:05So before being 18, he probably never drove a car, if not maybe the one of his grandparents. And then he started to practice with this car. he realized that he was a passion and only when he was 26 27 he approached formula one today it's different today you have some talent scouter which are looking for talents taking them to the very early stage or age and try to bring them up towards all the level till the formula one so and i think you can find it pretty much in every sport of course formula one or motorsport is quite expensive so today probably it's a little bit different you know there is a business behind that back then in the past being a formula one driver being a driver was kind being you know an actor actor in the sense that you are going driving and providing show to the spectator but you knew that it was something very dangerous what you were about to do and probably that's why there was a lower entry gate to the Formula One because you had back then to be ready to risk your life to be there, you know, today it's different.

8:18The Gstaad Guy:I mean, a lot of that has thankfully improved with the car safety as well. Big time. Today we have a carbon fiber chassis. Back then we had some, I would say, probably alloy chassis. The fuel cell was just behind your seat. There was not really protection. And even the little impact was probably, you know, starting into a big fire. So today the safety is there. And I think that the recent crash showed that it had become a very safe sport. That's great. I'd love to hear that. You were clearly very passionate about racing. And being the youngest racer ever to get in the Ferrari on the track is crazy.

9:02The Gstaad Guy:But I know that you then got out of racing after your father's passing. may his soul rest in peace and you joined the family business instead of going down the racing path may I ask you why you took that decision you are totally right first of all and I have no problem of saying that probably before you know I was that kind of guy where the father was racing was a driver Ferrari dealer racing myself you know probably I was happy with that but I don't want to be misunderstood but you know sometimes life puts you in some condition where you need to prove and if I look back now what I've been proving you know towards those years make me a better person someone who had to to deserve and to really gain and obtain what today I have before probably it was a little bit too much easier for me.

10:06So I still remember back in 2010 when my father passed away, there was a journalist, a guy who came to me, you know, those kind of guy, a little bit jealous, a little bit also, you know, how can I say, you know, try to stimulate a little bit you and your sentiments, no? And he told me, you know, Ronnie, it's normal. when the water touch the bat, even the donkey learn how to swim. And I have to say, I still have this sentence very much into my mind because the message that this person wanted to let me know is that that was the moment where I had really to start focusing on business, switch completely, stop enjoying life and getting into it.

10:56And from there, a lot of things have been changing the automotive industry has been growing my father after formula one started with a garage a little garage lugano and this is what i took over and today this little garage is a better well organized company which is divided in three main pillars so motorsports still remain one of our focus because it's where you know our family is coming from and we have the castle racing i'm just back now from the spa 24 hours you might see i'm a bit tired and this is one of our core business the second business it's selling modern car so with castle auto we are today dealer in switzerland for ferrari and for maserati and for pagani and then the third pillar which is a consequence of the fact that everyone is getting old not only us but also the cars that there are a lot of vintage car and that's why the third pillar is Kassel Classic and we are focusing on taking good care and restoring classic cars, all beauties bringing them back to the original, let's say, shape Beautiful.

12:07The Gstaad Guy:Which of those pillars do you think aligns most with who you are and where your interests lie? It's a good question I think that, you know, it's about phases in life sometimes it's one, sometimes it's the other one uh today i have to say i'm very much into the classic department uh first of all because i'm racing myself a little bit with classic cars i think those cars are super nice to be to be raced uh you go back to a normal manual gearbox with a manual gear stiff then you know you still They have some signs of the previous race. And it's nice, you know. It brings you back to those times where if you close your eyes, you think about James Hunt, Regazzoni, Niki Lauda, and probably also my father.

13:02And that's the explanation why I feel quite close to this world today.

13:05The Gstaad Guy:I love it. That's beautiful. So you run classic auto racing and the ice, which kind of brings a lot of those things together yeah the ice was a little bit this idea I have to say the ice is an idea which is a joint idea together with another dear friend of mine who came and he told me once you know Samorites is super beautiful you see a lot of horses which are racing on the circle on the frozen lake imagine what it would be if you could just enter the lake with some cars and give it a little bit a show because it's not about race it's like about a dynamic concourse of elegance it's about showing this beauty to the people which are coming on the lake and this was the idea to put together a little bit what we are doing and to share my passion with everyone so if you come to the ice you will see for sure some classic car but now we started to introduce also some modern car because this is also very important in the automotive industry and also some race cars so we are really trying to embrace all what we are doing which in the end it's automotive world at 360 degrees to give the chance to everyone to look into it and to enjoy a beautiful weekend up in San Morizio I love it I think there's lots of entrepreneurs in the car space who are doing new and different things and lots of people who are chasing many things in this world for passion and I think your passion is undeniable but you also have a story of inheritance like the journalist was saying where you had to swim the water came up when your father passed and you had to jump into this and you inherited lots of responsibility what was it like at that age to of course have the passion to pull you in but also have a tragedy push you into this it has been tough it happened too early i was back then 20 22 years old but i have to say it happened during this age where everyone is a little bit you know hungry of understanding what is around, of growing or try to achieve something in his own life and I was very curious, I wanted to really explore the world and explode somehow when you are in your 20s you just want to do and to explode and I think this has been helping me a lot So it's a bit sad that I lost my father too early.

15:59But at the same time, that was an age where I felt like, okay, now it's my time. Now it's my second race. It's not the race with the helmet. It's another kind of race. But I want to prove that I can keep the business running, eventually also growing it and you know and and pay some good you know gratitude to my father to to what he left and what he was as an amazing human being and without all the amazing people around me it would it wouldn't have been possible i have to say i don't feel like taking all the All the credits for this has been really a joint for. And we were a good team. We still are a good team.

16:51Now the team has been growing, has been divided into more pillars. But, you know, I think that behind any entrepreneurial story, behind any company, you have people. And people are fundamental to every business.

17:07The Gstaad Guy:For sure. what did the business look like at the time you inherited it at the age of 22 what were all the different pillars of the business and how does that look today it was um it was uh less divided compared to today it was basically uh a dealership selling different brands back then we used to sell also alfa romeo onda uh lamborghini some different brands and there was not really a racing division it was my father racing himself and a classic division he was just fixing some cars of the customer which were older than the car that we usually we used to have in the workshop but I have to say that in the last 15 years the automotive industry has been growing a lot all brands and manufacturers are pushing very much into racing prove is that if you look today what is happening during the Le Mans 24 hours you have pretty much all manufacturers which are back racing I can name Ferrari, I can name Peugeot I can name really all the manufacturers there which I think is great I mean everyone is discovering the heritage related to motorsport which I think is a great way to communicate a brand and so the racing industry is exploding same when it comes also to the classic industry because this is the real heritage of a brand.

18:39This is the history. This is how a brand can make the difference, you know, towards a competitor. Like, okay, there might be brands which are existing since 30, 40 years, but there are also brands which are 100 years old. And this is strong when it comes to communication. So the automotive industry has been changing and we have just been following a little bit this growth by dividing then the business into those three pillars. And yeah, this is what we are doing today. Basically, if someone will ask me to describe with one word what you are doing, I will probably use the word cars. And cars for me stands for C, stands for classic, so Castle Classic.

19:18A for automotive, so Castle Auto. R for racing, Castle Racing. And S for services. And when it comes to services, it's the paint shop, it's the body workshop, it's the service we are providing to the cars. There's also some concierge service when a customer is flying from America and he would love to have his car in Saint-Tropez, in Kstatt, in wherever he wants to have the car. This is what we are doing. We are basically taking care of 360 degrees of our customers.

19:46The Gstaad Guy:Beautiful. And what do you think has happened over the past few years that has made cars, and particularly racing, a bigger conversation than ever? well this is a good question um i think that somehow when liberty media took over formula one gave a good boost to this world when we think about race to survive when we think about all the other movies i have to say uh if you look or if you go to a grand prix today is not only the car racing, it's all what we have around, the entourage of what we have during a Formula 1 Grand Prix you have a lot of fashion, you have a lot of luxury goods or brands around, which is amazing because in the end this means exploiting even more a competition, a race and doing also some product placement and some good marketing behind that and for someone who's come from this field like me there is no better thing you know to have finally a more complete war to take part to absolutely you have chosen a path of growth of course but also specialization during the growth when you first started working on the business after your father's passing you mentioned you had Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo all these different brands under the under the Kessel Auto world and you could have continued to grow wide but you chose to instead narrow down and grow vertically through specialization.

21:34The Gstaad Guy:You now focus on Maserati, Ferrari and Pagani in the modern car category. Why did you choose to specialize versus to expand further? I think that it's a good question actually. it might be the reason why in order to expand further. I think that focus is everything when it comes to business. And to be specialized, it's fundamental. To try to do many things, but at a discrete level, is not key when it comes to success. to focus give some priorities and try to do what you're doing at your best is for sure the first step you know for a growing business it has not been easy at the very beginning also because i took this decision let's say quite soon after my my father has been passing away and some people were also criticizing like okay look at that guy he's like you know closing a little bit some some you know departments or stop with some brands because it's too much for him he's not able to keep up with with everything you know i i have been suffering back then because those you know people were not helping me in my in my challenge but But I have to say that if I look back today, it was the right decision.

23:19I think that when it comes to be specialized versus being a little bit more generic or generalist on what you're doing, it's always important to be specialized. And this is also what we are trying to keep inside our company. some very skilled people which are taking care of one particular field or one particular task. This is key to the success of the business and this is how we have been organizing the company. Then it's clear that when it comes maybe to myself by having to manage more tasks in the company I cannot be specialized anymore but you need to have very specialized people which are supporting you in each field because otherwise it's impossible to go anywhere.

24:08The Gstaad Guy:Absolutely. And I think in one of your fields in particular with the classics, with Castle Classic, the restorations you do, the sourcing of cars you do to find rare and special cars that are only more and more rare because they're classic cars, not only requires more and more specialty, but also it is, as time goes on, more and more difficult to find people who have the knowledge and skills of the past. It is very difficult today. If you want to find a very good mechanic, it's a challenge. I think that more and more the young generation is growing with some other different wishes when it comes to their work.

24:53Maybe they are more skilled when it comes to IT or some digital activity. But this makes at the same time very rare the mechanic who's still good on fixing the car or the guy who's still good on working on the body of a beautiful ferrari 250 gto for example and uh you know they start to be uh rare rare and more rare those people and uh yeah if today i was a very young guy i would start probably to consider also to go back to to some manual works because uh those skills will be the most wanted in the in the future Otherwise, such an activity like my one is not meant to continue.

26:04The Gstaad Guy:What do you think the importance of classic cars and heritage is? It is important and it is something which is a consequence of the fact that the world is moving forward. And that if I consider the definition of classic car could be a car which is older than 30 years, every year we welcome some new car into the classic car world so a classic car could be seen or probably it's seen today as an old car probably in the future this meaning will change a little bit because with now the new way of producing car which is the hybrid engine or the electric engine, probably the definition of classic car will change a little bit and it will be meaning the classic car with a classic combustion engine versus, let's say, the modern car, which are the car with different kind of power units, which could be electric, hybrid, hydrogen, whatever.

27:12So I think that the classic car is something important and it's something which is changing, mutating and let's see where we're going to end up with this definition.

27:21The Gstaad Guy:When people think of cars, they often think of transport, of course. And they also think of performance, racing. There's so many thoughts that come to mind. But there is a conversation that exists against race cars and fast cars and classic cars because they're overkill. for people who are not racing on a track, but just driving around town. Yet the bar keeps being raised and technologies keep being improved in these cars and these race cars to make them faster, more efficient, and more excellent in their own lanes. And I wonder in your eyes, why is it important to keep raising the bar of what's possible with these cars?

28:09and why is it important to strive for excellence

28:14The Gstaad Guy:and to keep beating performance records, efficiency records on a track but also in a garage? I think that this is part of how the humans are, we humans are. If you ask me why are we trying to go to Mars, it's also difficult to answer or maybe it's super easy to answer it's because humans and I think this is amazing when it comes to our category you know, are always looking for better to improve to the next challenge and this could be when it comes to construction when it comes to every field and I think that the answer is probably there even when it comes to automotive Enzo Ferrari used to say that the best car is the car which is not yet built or not built yet and i think it's right because if you look in the history of of ferrari and what he has been doing and what ferrari is still doing today you know there is always a better car which is coming with some new qualities better technology and so on and this applies of course to to every brand today though I have to say that there are some brands which started to focus also on the romantic way of driving cars which means not only at the performance but also at the way you are you are driving a car the handling of the car we have for example Pagani went back to the manual gearbox just to provide you this you know this malignity of the old good days and I think this is if you look into that merging a little bit with the classic car world so that's why I'm saying probably the classic car world the definition of classic car world is about to change because the more we advance with technology the more the current car with combustion engine and the old car are trying to find a little bit, you know, a synergy.

30:25And this Pagani and this Vision, but it's not the only brand, also Porsche is doing manual, I think it's the answer of this malignity of the, you know, good old days.

30:37The Gstaad Guy:And when it comes to F1 as a category in racing, what do you think that does for the greater world of automotive? And why is F1 important for cars in general? Formula One is the biggest automotive platform when it comes to communication. It's a platform where the brands are basically showing their skills on track. It's also, if you look back in the past, a way to represent your nation. back then back in the 50s when formula one was invented you had the blue cars like the bugattis racing for france you had the silver car silver arrow racing for germany you had the red car could be ferrari but also maserati or alformeo racing for italy then you had the white for america and the green the so-called british green for england so formula one it's today a little bit like the Champions League probably or the Premier League, you know.

31:46It's a way to, through motorsport, to support and to stand for your nation. And I think that this is something very nice.

31:53The Gstaad Guy:You think it's still a representation of skills of a nation to build the car and race the car versus a brand or a car manufacturer or so on? I think that the spectators are probably also choosing the brand that, you know, their favorite brand, the one that they are, I would say, standing for. Also because of this, if you go to Holland and you see Max Verstappen winning, you see a lot of orange smoke. Okay, now everyone will agree that the Red Bull is not coming from Holland, but still the driver is coming from Holland. And if you go to Imola or to Monza and you see Ferrari winning and all this red smoke that they're doing is to celebrate Ferrari, but also to celebrate the success of Italy.

32:51So I'm saying that probably it's not only the car, it could be also the driver, but it's a way to be very close to your nation. And I think that this is pretty much like this in every sport. If you look into the Olympiade, it's like this. and probably if then I go back to the minor categories or below the Formula 1, this thing is not there, but in Formula 1 it's really there. So you stand for your nation.

33:17The Gstaad Guy:And how has Formula 1 changed to you from when you used to watch it and be a part of it through your father's racing and today? Back then it was much more accessible. So if you wanted to go and to join a box, a paddock experience, it was easier. Today it's a little bit more regulated. But, you know, this is just the results of the success that motorsport is having. Before probably there were, there was much less people. Today there are too many people. And if you don't regulate that, you know, it would end up into a disaster and too many people in the paddock. So it's a great success, the one of Formula One and also the one of Le Mans and those hyper car and this World Endurance Series.

34:09So we are really into a very good wave when it comes to motorsport.

34:15The Gstaad Guy:Speaking of the Endurance Series, you just got off the track for 24 hours of racing in your Ferrari. I mean, you weren't actually in the car, but you were on the sidelines. How does that work? the car is just driving engine is on for 24 hours straight how many times you switch drivers i'm very curious yeah so the yeah that's correct we i'm just back from spot 24 hours where we we won our class so we are very happy it's always very challenging you know to race for 24 hours when it comes to the car or starting from the car the car is actually running non-stop for 24 hours the only 23 moments where you switch off the engine is when you have to refuel it each hour because of course you need to refuel the car if you want to to get to the end of the race for probably one minute but otherwise the engine is just going maximum rest 24 hours long and before the race you have the free practice we have the qualifying so after 24 hours the car need to be rebuilt completely but what i think it's really exciting about the 24 hours race is that it's a big team effort the driver three four drivers depending from the category are also racing alternating each other for 24 hours so they might do a double steam go sleeping for three four hours back to the car you know it's like it's like very challenging and the mechanics having to wake up every hour to just refuel the car, change the tires and maybe fix the car because of a little collision.