Trintignant began racing in 1938 and won the Grand Prix des Frontières in 1939, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War. The chaotic aftermath produced one of motorsport's stranger origin stories: when he rebuilt his stored Bugatti for a 1945 event, a fuel filter clogged with rat droppings caused him to retire — earning him the lasting nickname "Le Petoulet" from fellow racer Jean-Pierre Wimille, a name he later attached to his wine label.
In 1948 he suffered an extraordinarily serious accident during a support race for the Swiss Grand Prix. He was thrown from his car and landed on the track. His heart stopped beating for one minute and fifteen seconds at the hospital and he was pronounced dead, yet he survived after a week-long coma. The injury left him with an irregular abdominal scar and six months of amnesia and lost motor skills, but he made a near-complete recovery. The corner where the accident occurred was subsequently named after him. During his hospital stay his wife gave him a stuffed teddy bear, which he carried in his pocket as a superstition for the rest of his racing career. He returned to competition in 1949 and won a Formula Two race at the Circuit des Remparts.
Trintignant joined the Gordini works team for the inaugural Formula One World Championship season in 1950 and competed without interruption through 1964 — one of the longest tenures in the sport's early history. He drove for a remarkable variety of teams and manufacturers: Ferrari, Cooper, BRM, Bugatti, Gordini, Vanwall, and others, including privateer entries, ultimately racing eleven different makes in World Championship rounds, a record.
His best championship seasons were 1954 and 1955, when he finished fourth in the World Drivers' Championship on both occasions with Ferrari. His two Grand Prix victories came at Monaco — the most demanding circuit on the calendar. In 1955, starting from ninth on the grid, he inherited the lead as faster cars retired and won. In 1958, starting from fifth, he repeated the feat in a Cooper under similar circumstances. Both wins came from the midfield, underlining his skill at surviving and capitalising when more powerful machinery fell away.
At the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix he shared in both second and third places, a product of the Scuderia Ferrari practice of transferring cars to their leading drivers should their own machinery break down. In 1956 he drove the Bugatti Type 251 at the French Grand Prix, becoming the last driver to represent that storied marque in a Formula One race. Even in his final season in 1964, driving his own BRM P57, he scored points with a fifth place at the German Grand Prix on the Nürburgring. Between 1959 and 1966, he held the record for most World Championship Grand Prix starts.
Trintignant entered fifteen editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1950 and 1965. His most significant result came in 1954, when he won with José Froilán González in a Ferrari 375 Plus. Despite a seven-minute pit stop with an hour and a half to go — caused by a faulty ignition wiring connection after torrential rain — they held on to take victory. He also won the Tourist Trophy in 1954 and finished runner-up at Le Mans in 1959. His wins list spans events across France, Belgium, Argentina, Africa, and beyond, reflecting a career built on consistency and range rather than a single dominant period.
Trintignant served as mayor of Vergèze, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, between 1958 and 1964, while simultaneously competing at the highest level of motor racing. He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 1960. After retiring from racing he took over his father's vineyard and named his wine Le Petoulet — the same nickname that had followed him since 1945. In 2000, at the age of eighty-two, he competed in the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco in the Cooper T45 he had driven to his 1958 victory there. A bronze statue honouring his career was unveiled in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes in 2010. His nephew, Jean-Louis Trintignant, became a highly celebrated actor in post-war France.
Trintignant died on 13 February 2005, aged 87. Across his fifteen seasons in Formula One he was known for a conservative, reliable driving style that served him well as a survivor in the sport's most dangerous era. His two Monaco victories, both snatched from the midfield, illustrated a talent for reading a race and lasting when others could not. The combination of Le Mans victory, Formula One longevity, civic service, and winemaking made him one of the most multifaceted figures in the history of French motorsport.