Pirro began karting in 1973 and won the Italian Karting Championship twice, in 1976 and 1979, finishing runner-up in both the European and World Karting Championships. He won the Formula Fiat Abarth Championship in 1980 and progressed through Formula 3 and Formula 3000, winning races in both series. He also competed in Formula Nippon in Japan, where he again took victories.
His first Le Mans experience came early in his career — at the age of nineteen he won his class at the 24 Hours of Daytona with a Lancia Beta Montecarlo Gr.5. He also won the Kyalami 9 Hours that year, though his debut at Le Mans itself was described as a terrible experience.
In 1988, Pirro was contracted by McLaren as a test driver to develop the Honda powertrain for the MP4/4, the dominant car of that championship season. He remained in that test role for three seasons. His Formula One race debut came at the 1989 French Grand Prix, where he substituted for injured Johnny Herbert at Benetton-Ford. He raced for BMS Scuderia Italia in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Alongside his single-seater commitments during this period, Pirro drove for BMW as a factory driver in touring car racing.
Pirro was a factory driver for BMW through 1993, competing in the European Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Championship, Italian Supertouring, and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring driving a BMW M3 E30 with team Schnitzer, and won the Macau Guia Race twice, in 1991 and 1992. He notably won on his DTM debut.
After leaving BMW, Pirro joined Audi and won the Italian Superturismo Championship in both 1994 and 1995, then won the Super Tourenwagen Cup (the German equivalent) in 1996. Across those three seasons of Italian and German Supertouring, he contested 70 races and finished outside the top ten only once — when he was taken out at the start in 1994 at the Salzburgring.
Pirro returned to Le Mans in 1998 driving a McLaren F1 LM alongside Dindo Capello and Thomas Bscher, but retired. In 1999, Audi unveiled the R8R and Pirro scored the first of what would become nine consecutive podiums at the French classic.
The 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans marked the beginning of Pirro's most celebrated chapter. Driving alongside Tom Kristensen and Frank Biela in the Audi R8, the trio won Le Mans outright — the first of three consecutive victories for that combination. Pirro won again with Biela and Marco Werner in 2006, this time in the Audi R10 TDI, becoming the first driver to win Le Mans with a diesel-powered car. He repeated that feat in 2007. His five Le Mans victories span 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, and 2007.
In American endurance racing, Pirro won the American Le Mans Series championship twice, in 2001 and 2005, and won Petit Le Mans three times, in 2001, 2005, and 2008. He also won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice, in 2001 and 2005. Pirro announced the conclusion of his Audi sportscar career in 2008. He subsequently made further appearances including a Le Mans entry with Drayson Racing in a Lola-Judd LMP1, and the 2011 Gold Coast 500 in the Australian V8 Supercars Championship.
After retiring from front-line competition, Pirro remained deeply embedded in motorsport. He serves as Brand Ambassador for Audi and holds positions on multiple FIA commissions: the Drivers' Commission, Circuits' Commission, and Historic Motorsport Commission. He is President of the Italian Karting Commission, Vice President of the Grand Prix Drivers' Club and the Club des Pilotes des 24 Heures du Mans, and serves as an FIA race steward at Formula One events. He also became Director of the McLaren Racing Driver Development program.
Pirro competes regularly in historic racing; in 2010 he won the Monaco Historic Grand Prix in the Formula 3 class. He has been a long-standing player for the Nazionale Piloti football team and participates in charity events including "Star Team for the Children" for Prince Albert of Monaco. He owns the Faloria Mountain Spa Resort, a five-star hotel in Cortina d'Ampezzo. His sons Cristoforo (born 1993) and Goffredo (born 1996) both pursued careers in motorsport engineering.
Emanuele Pirro's five Le Mans victories make him one of the most successful drivers in the race's history, and his 2006 triumph in the Audi R10 TDI secured his place in a unique corner of that history — the first driver to win Le Mans with a diesel car. Combined with touring car championships across three countries and a Formula One career, Pirro stands as a defining figure of Italian motorsport's endurance era.