There are expensive cars in the garages of Formula 1 drivers, and then there is the one Fernando Alonso owns. Not leased, not gifted, not quietly tucked away as an investment. One that’s driven and often seen, and is instantly recognizable to anyone who knows what the GT1 era meant. The most expensive car owned by any current F1 driver today is sitting in Alonso’s Monaco orbit, and it wears a silver Mercedes badge. It is one of the rarest automotive creations with the most unhinged backstories motorsport ever produced.
The car in question is the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, a machine that exists because late-1990s GT racing briefly lost its grip on reality. To go racing in FIA GT1, manufacturers were required to build a road version of their race car. Mercedes did not adapt a road car for competition. Instead, it built a race car first and then begrudgingly turned it into something with license plates. Only 25 road-going coupes were produced, just enough to satisfy the rulebook and nothing more.
What emerged was barely a streetcar in the conventional sense. The CLK GTR sits low, wide, and unapologetically hostile, sharing its silhouette and attitude with the cars that dominated GT racing in its era. Power comes from a naturally aspirated V12 producing around 612 horsepower and 775 Nm of torque, sent through a sequential gearbox. Performance figures still feel absurd today. Zero to 62mph in under four seconds and a top speed around 199mph, wrapped in a body that looks like it escaped pit lane by mistake.
More important than the numbers is what the CLK GTR represents. This was Mercedes at its most ruthless, operating alongside AMG and Ilmor, building a car purely to win races and worrying about road legality later. That lineage is why the CLK GTR is often mentioned in the same breath as the McLaren F1 GTR and Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion. It also explains why values have exploded. Today, a genuine road-going CLK GTR trades close to $10 million, sometimes more depending on provenance, mileage, and originality.
And Alonso did not buy it quietly. Since settling into life in Monaco, he has been seen driving the CLK GTR through streets that barely feel wide enough for normal traffic, let alone a homologation special designed for endurance racing. It is not a display piece. It is part of his daily orbit, which says more about Alonso than any press release ever could.
The CLK GTR now sits alongside an increasingly serious collection of automotive history. As confirmed by Car and Driver, Alonso has been spotted driving a Ferrari F40 and a Ferrari Testarossa, two icons from very different eras that share one trait: zero interest in modern luxury. Add to that his Aston Martin Valkyrie, a car born from Formula 1 thinking and road-car excess, and the rare Aston Martin Valiant, a manual, V12-powered love letter to old-school driving. There is also a Ford GT Heritage Edition in his garage, tying modern engineering back to Le Mans mythology. What makes this collection stand out is its intent. These are not speculative assets. They are cars with stories, sharp edges, and reputations that demand respect from the driver.
The contrast becomes sharper when you look across the grid. Alonso’s long-time rival Lewis Hamilton made headlines recently for selling his entire car collection, stepping away from ownership altogether. Where Hamilton streamlined, Alonso doubled down. Where one exited, the other curated. In a paddock full of fast cars, Fernando Alonso owns the one that should not exist at all. And that may be the most Alonso thing imaginable.
