Montezemolo was born in Bologna. He descends from an aristocratic family from Piedmont. His father, Massimo Cordero dei Marchesi di Montezemolo, was a Piedmontese aristocrat whose family served the Royal House of Savoy for generations; his mother, Clotilde Neri, was the niece of Italian surgeon Vincenzo Neri. His uncle, Admiral Giorgio Cordero dei Marchesi di Montezemolo, commanded in the Regia Marina during World War II; both his grandfather Mario and great-grandfather Carlo were Generals in the Italian Army. His surname is properly "Cordero di Montezemolo"; Marchesi is a noble title.
Montezemolo graduated in law from La Sapienza University in 1971 and subsequently studied for a master's degree in international commercial law at Columbia University.
Montezemolo's sporting career began when he raced a Giannini Fiat 500 alongside his friend Cristiano Rattazzi. He later briefly drove for the privately owned Lancia rally team known as HF Squadra Corse before joining FIAT S.p.A., headquartered in Torino.
In 1973, Enzo Ferrari invited Montezemolo to become his assistant. In 1974, he was appointed sporting director of the Scuderia. During his tenure, Ferrari won the Formula One World Championship with Niki Lauda in 1975 and 1977. In 1976, Montezemolo was promoted to head of all FIAT racing activities, and in 1977 he advanced to become a senior manager at FIAT.
Throughout the 1980s, Montezemolo held various positions within the FIAT empire, including managing director of the drinks company Cinzano and director of the publishing company Itedi. In 1982, he managed the America's Cup challenge of Team Azzurra, the first Italian yacht club to enter the event. In 1985, he became manager of the Organizing Committee for the 1990 World Cup Italia.
In November 1991, FIAT Chairman Gianni Agnelli appointed Montezemolo president of Ferrari, which had been struggling since Enzo Ferrari's death. Montezemolo signed Niki Lauda as a consultant and promoted Claudio Lombardi to the team manager role. During the 1990s, he restored the Ferrari road car business from heavy debts to profitability. He also took on the presidency of Maserati when Ferrari acquired it in 1997, a role he held until 2005.
Under Montezemolo and Jean Todt, Ferrari won the World Drivers' Championship in 2000—the first since 1979—and the World Constructors' Championship in 1999, their first since 1983.
On 27 May 2004, Montezemolo became president of the Italian business lobby Confindustria. Following the death of Umberto Agnelli on 28 May, he was elected chairman of Fiat S.p.A. On 29 July 2008, Montezemolo founded the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and served as its president from 2008 to 2010, when he was replaced by McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh. FOTA was formally dissolved in 2014. In April 2010, John Elkann replaced Montezemolo as Chairman of Fiat S.p.A. On 10 September 2014, Montezemolo resigned as president and chairman of Ferrari and was replaced by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne.
In February 2015, Montezemolo became committee president of the Rome bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. In April 2016, his name was mentioned in the Panama Papers. On 28 June 2025, he was reported to have been appointed as a director of McLaren Group Holdings Ltd.
Montezemolo was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in July 2015 and received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2017.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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