Peter Monteverdi was born in Binningen, in the northern Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft. He engaged in the construction of Formula One cars from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In 1961, he built the first Swiss Formula One car, which bore the name MBM ("Monteverdi Basel Motoren"). He made a single Formula One appearance at the 1961 Solitude Grand Prix, where he retired after two laps, and subsequently withdrew his entry for the German Grand Prix having been injured in a prior race. He subsequently retired from race driving.