Managing the immense pressure of a Formula 1 championship battle requires finding ways to disconnect between race weekends. For Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, unwinding ahead of the United States Grand Prix apparently involves taking one of the rarest, most expensive, and most aggressive road cars ever built for a casual drive through Casino Square.
Just days after a gruelling, humidity-soaked Singapore Grand Prix, the billionaire motorsport executive was filmed by the Instagram account @monaco_luxurystyle navigating the sun-drenched streets of the Principality in a silver Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.
A literal race car for the road
Even in Monaco, a city overflowing with Bugattis and Ferraris, the CLK GTR completely stops traffic.
The vehicle is a "homologation special" - a street-legal car built specifically to satisfy the FIA regulations required to enter the racing version in the 1997 FIA GT Championship. To legally compete on the track, Mercedes-Benz had to produce a small batch of cars for public customers. The result was a carbon-fibrecarbon fibreum monocoque monster housing a mid-mounted 6.9-litre naturally aspirated AMG V12 engine.
Producing a staggering 604 horsepower and 572 pound-feet of torque, the road-going CLK GTR was essentially a Le Mans-style endurance racer dressed up with leather seats and air conditioning.
The $10million price tag
Spotting a CLK GTR on the open road is an incredibly rare event. Mercedes-Benz only ever built 28 examples in total: two prototypes, 20 coupes, and six roadsters.
Because of that extreme scarcity and its mythical status among automotive purists, the vehicle's value has skyrocketed over the last decade. When it debuted in 1997, it was certified by Guinness as the world's most expensive production vehicle with a price tag of roughly $1.5million.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photo by: Max Slovencik / Getty Images
Today, those figures have multiplied exponentially. One of the six roadster variants was recently sold at an RM Sotheby's auction for a jaw-dropping $10,235,000, and the coupes routinely command massive eight-figure valuations behind closed doors.
While rookie sensation Kimi Antonelli preps for his shot at the 2026 World Drivers' Championship in Austin, his boss is clearly enjoying the European autumn behind the wheel of the ultimate piece of Mercedes history.