A new limited-edition driver’s jacket from Fay is a father-and-son affair
Ronnie Kessel is unusual. After a burgeoning career as a race driver, which saw him compete in his debut race at 16, the youngest person to drive in a Ferrari championship (the record still holds), he had to take over the family business when his father died prematurely of leukaemia. Young Ronnie was only in his early twenties but he was determined to make things work.
The firm he was bequeathed was Kessel Auto, a Ferrari dealership and race team in Switzerland, founded by his old man. Loris Kessel had been an F1 driver in the ’70s, competing with the likes of Mario Andretti, James Hunt and fellow Swiss, Clay Regazzoni. It was quite an achievement for a farmer’s son who had grownup in a remote village in the Swiss Alps.
Ronnie has a picture of his dad as a kid pretending to drive a cardboard box. He was apparently crazy about cars and got his break when spotted competing in races in the Alps in an Alfa Romeo his parents had bought for him. The passion was clearly passed down to the next generation. Kessel senior carried on competing after his F1 adventure and even raced with his son just before his passing, something Ronnie remembers fondly now.
Ronnie Kessel road-tests the limited-edition racing jacket he has collaborated on with Fay as part of the Signature Series
‘Somehow it was destiny; it’s like he knew that something was about to happen soon, and he wanted to finally manage to do one race together with me,’ he explains. They competed in 2008 at the Valencia Street Circuit. ‘I still have this beautiful memory. We got second, I think, and I have a picture of us celebrating together on the podium.’
Coming from the Alpine Engadin region of Switzerland, one idea Loris Kessel had was that they should revive the old race up to the Bernina Pass. ‘I have a reproduction of a poster for the first automotive week in St Moritz,’ says Ronnie. ‘There was the hill climb to the Bernina and other speed trials. This was a big place for cars after it was opened up to automobiles at that time. And it still is today.’ Around a decade ago Loris’s idea became a reality, but sadly he didn’t live to see it. ‘I remember him saying, it would be super nice just to reactivate this race.’ It had stopped in 1930. ‘And I helped make this happen in 2014 and have been racing it every year since.’
But if fulfilling this challenge was satisfying, today Ronnie is feeling even more connected to his father. We are sitting in the house where his dad used to tend cows (yes, they slept inside) at the start line of the Bernina Gran Turismo hill climb, in the village of La Rösa. And the young driver is wearing a jacket he has designed to commemorate his father’s ’70s heyday. The idea came about through a connection with Fay. Ronnie had created a jacket with the Italian brand in 2023 and road-tested it on a month-long South American odyssey in a vintage Ford Mustang. ‘Me and my co-pilot, Daniele, my brother-in-law, wore these limited-edition jackets, which were super nice because they were warm, but also light, so you were not sweating inside. And we were in them every day. Because when you’re travelling in South America, maybe in the morning you are at sea level, and after two hours you are at 4,000 metres and it’s cold.’
The Mark 1 Fay and Ronnie Kessel driving jacket looked like one of the firm’s 4 Ganci models – made from green waxy cotton, it had a shearling collar and “fireman’s hook” fastenings (ganci) down the front. But today he is in something very different.
‘That first limited-edition jacket sold out immediately, so it was very successful,’ he remembers. Not surprisingly, the company approached him again this year and asked if he had any ideas for a second garment. Remembering a picture of his father in a denim race jacket – he explains that, pre fire-resistant materials, drivers would often wear denim for protection – Ronnie suggested replicating the look.
Fay Racing Jacket – Ronnie Kessel Signature Series
The result is again a hybrid style that can handle different climates. ‘It is in this blue colour of cotton and has a white quilted lining for warmth, and also ribs for the neck and at the end of the arms and around the hem. It’s about comfort and protecting the driver.’ Ronnie will wear this jacket over his race suit too at the top of the Bernina Pass when he goes to register the vintage Alfa Romeo GTAm that he will race up the mountainside.
‘Being here today, having this jacket dedicated to my father and the way he was dressing in the past, and being here in this house where he spent time as a young man… For me, it’s a dream come true,’ says the driver. ‘You know, these are things that have no price. They have a huge meaning for me.’
Ronnie Kessel Fay racing jacket, £925; fay.com
