Frère was born at Le Havre in 1917. Outside motorsport he was a successful athlete, winning three Belgian national rowing championships: the coxless four title in both 1946 and 1947, and the coxed four title in 1946.
Frère made his World Championship Formula One debut on 22 June 1952 and went on to contest eleven championship Grands Prix, accumulating eleven championship points with one podium finish. He also drove in several non-championship Formula One races, winning the 1952 Grand Prix des Frontières and the 1960 VI South African Grand Prix. He drove for the Ferrari works team, appearing alongside drivers such as Peter Collins.
His greatest single achievement as a racing driver came at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he and Gendebien shared a Ferrari to overall victory. The win confirmed his standing among the top sports car drivers of his era.
Frère retired from active racing after the 1960 season.
Following his retirement from the cockpit, Frère built a second career as one of the most respected automotive journalists in Europe. He served as European Editor for Road & Track magazine and cultivated close working relationships with vehicle design engineers, particularly at Honda and Mazda in Japan, where he also worked as a manufacturer consultant. At the age of 86, he tested and demonstrated an Audi R8 during a break in proceedings at the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day, making him the oldest racing driver to pilot a then-current sports prototype.
Frère was among the first writers, alongside Piero Taruffi and Denis Jenkinson, to treat motor racing as an analyzable skill that could be taught. His 1963 book Sports Car and Competition Driving became a standard reference in the field and influenced the development of racing schools founded by instructors including Jim Russell and Bob Bondurant.
He was also recognized as a leading authority on Porsche, particularly the 911 series. His book The Porsche 911 Story became the definitive work on the subject. Porsche tuner and manufacturer Alois Ruf consulted Frère during development of the Ruf RGT8.
In 1967, Frère made a cameo appearance in the Belgian film The Departure, centered on a car-obsessed young man pursuing a Porsche 911 for a race.
In January 2007, only weeks before his 90th birthday, Frère was seriously injured in a road accident near the Nürburgring and spent 14 days in intensive care. He died on 23 February 2008 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, at the age of 91. In his honor, Turn 15 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps — formerly the first part of the Stavelot corner — was renamed after him.
Paul Frère's dual legacy in racing and journalism makes him an unusual figure in motorsport history. His analytical approach to driver technique, published at a time when such knowledge was largely passed informally between drivers, helped elevate the standard of racing instruction globally. His long association with Ferrari, Porsche, and the world's most prestigious endurance events placed him at the center of European motorsport culture across six decades.