Piccinini was raised in a family with strong roots in Italian industry. His father Arnaldo was a pioneer in the Italian electronics sector, founding an industrial group that included VOXSON (televisions, car radios, and hi-fi equipment) and VIDEOCOLOR (colour television picture tubes). When Arnaldo's health declined in the late 1960s, the family sold their industrial interests and relocated to Monaco. After his father's death, Piccinini channelled his energies into two fields: finance and motor racing.
He studied architecture in Rome, where he first became involved in motorsport by cooperating with Formula 3 constructor and team De Sanctis. He later received training in the Techniques of International Negotiations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
In 1974 Piccinini co-founded the first Monegasque racing car manufacturer, Société Monégasque de Constructions Automobiles MP, which produced a small number of Formula 3 single-seaters — an early signal of his ambition to operate at the sharp end of single-seater racing.
In 1977 Enzo Ferrari personally appointed Piccinini as his representative for Formula 1 matters, and he was quickly elevated to Direttore Sportivo of the Ferrari team. From 1978 to 1988 he served as Motor Sport Director and Team Principal of the Ferrari Formula 1 operation, one of the longest and most consequential tenures in the team's history.
During this period he was a principal architect of the Concorde Agreement, the landmark charter that codified the regulatory and financial framework governing the Formula 1 World Championship. The agreement, first signed in 1981, shaped the commercial and sporting structure of the sport for decades. Piccinini remained a member of the Ferrari SpA Board of Directors from 1983 until 2016.
Having left the Ferrari team, Piccinini moved into the governance structures of international motorsport. Between 1993 and 1994 he served as President of CSAI, the Italian Motor Sport commission, and in 1994 was elected Vice President of the FIA, the international motor sport governing body.
From 1998 to 2008 he held the position of Deputy President of the FIA and chaired the World Motor Sport Council, the executive body responsible for regulating all motor sport disciplines worldwide. He served three terms in that role before stepping down a year early in 2008 to focus on other professional commitments.
In 1998 and 1999 he also served as Deputy CEO of FOA (Formula One Administration) and FOM (Formula One Management), the bodies that held and administered the commercial rights to the Formula 1 World Championship under Bernie Ecclestone.
From 1981 to 2010 Piccinini was a member of the Board of Directors of the Automobile Club de Monaco, the organiser of the Monaco Grand Prix and the Monte-Carlo Rally — sustaining a direct link to the race that sits at the heart of his adopted principality.
Piccinini's career extended well beyond motor racing. From 1997 to 2000 he served as Executive Deputy Chairman and Challenge Representative of the Prada America's Cup team (Luna Rossa), which won the Louis Vuitton Cup in Auckland 2000 to become the challenger finalist against Team New Zealand. He subsequently served as Executive Chairman of the Challengers Association for America's Cup XXXI.
His financial career included board positions at Société de Crédit et de Banque de Monaco, Crédit Mobilier de Monaco, Compagnie Monégasque de Banque, Finter Bank Zurich, and Mediobanca's Monegasque private banking subsidiary. He also sat on the boards of industrial and luxury groups including Italcementi, Poltrona Frau (with its Cassina and Cappellini brands), Church's Shoes, and AS Monaco Football Club.
In 2010 Piccinini served as Monaco's Ambassador to China and India. From 2011 to 2012 he was Counsellor of Government and Minister of Finance and Economy of Monaco, during which time he prioritised restoring a balanced budget, introduced modern international tax-cooperation standards, and worked to reduce the risk profile of the Monaco National Reserve Fund. He returned to a senior advisory role from 2017 onward. Between September 2023 and March 2024 he again served as Minister of Finance and Economy, and from March 2024 he has held the position of Ambassador of Monaco for International Financial Negotiations.
Piccinini's decade at Ferrari coincided with the team's transition through the turbulent early Concorde era and his personal role in drafting that agreement gave him an enduring influence on Formula 1's political architecture that outlasted his time on the pit wall. His trajectory — from racing car co-founder to FIA Deputy President to Monegasque minister — is without close parallel in the sport's administrative history.