Baghetti was born in Milan. His father was a wealthy Milan industrialist. He began racing in 1955 in production cars, moving up to
Formula Junior in 1958. In 1961 he was selected by the
Federazione Italiana Scuderie Automobilistiche (FISA), a coalition of independent Italian team owners who had agreed a loan deal with
Ferrari for a
156 Formula Two car to run in non-Championship Grand Prix, giving experience to promising Italian drivers. Despite not showing spectacular form in lower categories, Baghetti was chosen over
Albino Buttichi and
Lucien de Sanctis for the seat. The car was first entered for the
Syracuse Grand Prix, the first major event run under the new 1.5-litre championship regulations, and against a strong field Baghetti qualified second and won in the only
Ferrari, with the British teams and
Porsche 718 flat 4 unable to compete with the Dino's V6. He then drove the same car to win at the
Napoli Grand Prix a few weeks later. Team FISA entered an original 60-degree V6
Ferrari 156, at least 10 hp down on power, for Baghetti in the
1961 French Grand Prix at
Reims-Gueux, for this World Championship event. Once
Wolfgang von Trips,
Richie Ginther and
Phil Hill had all retired their works 156s, Baghetti was left to uphold Ferrari honour. He overcame
Dan Gurney's Porsche 718 to take victory, giving him a
hat trick of wins from his first three Grands Prix. Gurney was leading with to go as the cars raced to the finish line at . The victory meant Baghetti became the first Italian since 1956 to win a Formula One World Championship event. Baghetti was involved in 1963 in the disastrous
ATS effort in 1963, joining up with
Phil Hill for
Carlo Chiti's breakaway team, but failed to register a finish from five starts. For 1964 he switched to
Scuderia Centro Sud's outdated
BRM P57 cars, peaking with seventh at the
Austrian Grand Prix. His Grand Prix career was then virtually over, though he had three more one-off drives, all at the
Italian Grand Prix – a works
Brabham in 1965, a
Reg Parnell-semiworks Dino Ferrari 2.4 V6 in which he ran strongly ahead of Arundell's Lotus V8 Climax and Anderson's 2.7 litre Brabham, running 5th in 1966 and a similarly competent drive in a works
Lotus 49 in 1967, running in midfield and passing Amon and Ickx and would have scored a point but for a blown engine. ==Post-Formula One racing==