Born in Milan, Italy, Platé began his involvement in motorsport as a mechanic. He soon graduated to racing himself, though he never attained significant results as a driver. His best finish as a competitor was fourth place — also last — at the 1938 Modena Autodrome. He continued driving in minor events until 1948, when he fully retired from competitive driving to focus on team management.
Platé began fielding cars for other drivers as early as 1946, when he provided the Maserati that carried the legendary Tazio Nuvolari to his final grand prix victory at the Albi Grand Prix. This victory marked the beginning of Scuderia Enrico Platé's rise as a respected privateer team in European grand prix racing.
The team's early years produced a string of notable results. In 1947, Christian Kautz won the Grand Prix de la Marne at Reims-Gueux in a Platé-entered Maserati 4CL, and in 1948 Nello Pagani drove a Platé car to victory at the Pau Grand Prix. Tragedy also visited the team in 1948, when Kautz was killed at the Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten while driving one of Platé's cars. In 1949, Emanuel de Graffenried scored what was arguably the team's most significant victory, winning the British Grand Prix in a new Maserati 4CLT/48. Prince Bira added a further win for the team later that season at the Swedish Summer Grand Prix.
When the Formula One World Championship began in 1950, Scuderia Platé remained active but was unable to challenge the dominant works Alfa Romeo and, later, Ferrari teams. Despite this, the team continued to compete and found success in non-championship races, claiming five further victories between 1950 and 1953.
Platé's loyalty to Maserati never wavered. For the 1952 and 1953 seasons, which were run to Formula Two regulations, Platé's team rebuilt a Maserati 4CLT to F2 specification. The modifications were extensive enough that Maserati permitted the car to be entered as the Maserati-Platé — making Enrico Platé the only Formula One constructor to originate in Switzerland. Notable drivers who raced for Scuderia Platé during the Championship era included Prince Bira, Harry Schell, and Emanuel de Graffenried.
By early 1953, Platé faced growing financial difficulties and his team's presence at grands prix was increasingly limited to preparing cars for de Graffenried rather than fielding entries as a constructor. Enrico Platé died on 2 February 1954 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he was killed in an accident during a brief return to driving in a minor Formula Libre race. He was 45 years old.
Enrico Platé occupies a distinctive place in motorsport history as both an enabler of great drivers and an unlikely national trailblazer. His team gave Tazio Nuvolari one last victory and helped launch the careers and reputations of drivers such as de Graffenried. The Maserati-Platé entry remains a singular achievement: the only Formula One constructor to carry a Swiss identity in the sport's early championship years.