Formula One teams had been using carbon-fibre reinforced polymer for auto parts since 1975, when a carbon fibre rear wing was fitted to Graham Hill's Embassy car. As teams optimised ground effect cars, aluminium — the industry-standard building material — proved insufficiently stiff to handle the increasing downforce. Carbon fibre was both lighter and stiffer.
Chassis designer John Barnard, having observed Rolls-Royce engineers use carbon fibre in the Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan engine, began planning a complete carbon fibre car. Barnard persuaded Ron Dennis — then team principal of Formula Two's Project Four Racing — of the technology's viability. They were initially unable to find a Formula One team willing to implement the idea. Team Lotus was simultaneously developing a carbon fibre car, the Lotus 88, which debuted in 1981 but was banned due to its controversial dual-chassis structure.
McLaren Racing, whose drivers had won the 1974 and 1976 Drivers' Championships, was seeking new leadership following a decline in performances towards the end of the 1970s. Lead sponsor Marlboro's John Hogan demanded organisational changes; familiar with Dennis from his years at Rondel Racing, Hogan agreed to fund the carbon fibre chassis. The car's name, MP4, stood for either Marlboro Project Four or McLaren Project Four depending on who was asked; it was considered "the most advanced and expensive race car in the world".
The chassis was built by McLaren using carbon supplied by American firm Hercules Aerospace in Salt Lake City, on the advice of McLaren engineer and former Hercules apprentice Steve Nichols. Dennis and Barnard followed Nichols' advice after being turned down by multiple British firms due to the ambitious nature of the construction method. The first few MP4/1 chassis were built in America and shipped back to the McLaren factory because McLaren lacked autoclaves at the time.
The car was significantly more advanced than McLaren's previous designs, the M29 and M30, approaching the precision of fighter aircraft construction. Within months carbon fibre began to be adopted by all of McLaren's rivals. The chassis was designed by John Barnard, Steve Nichols, and Alan Jenkins.
From 1981 until late 1983 the MP4/1 was powered by the 3.0 litre Ford-Cosworth DFV V8, the standard Formula One engine of the era. In both 1981 and 1982 McLaren International had the exclusive use of a developed Nicholson-McLaren Cosworth DFV, rebuilt in John Nicholson's Colnbrook workshops under an agreement dating to the mid-1970s. This engine featured larger pistons and valves than a conventional factory DFV and could rev to around 11,500 RPM, producing approximately 510 BHP. It used different castings to reduce frictional losses and MAHLE pistons rather than Cosworth's own, enabling John Watson and Niki Lauda to match the straight-line speed of the factory Ferrari and Renault V6 twin-turbos during the 1982 season.
Hercules Aerospace keeps Watson's car — destroyed in the 1981 Italian Grand Prix — and shows it to visitors alongside footage of the accident to illustrate how the carbon fibre construction made survival possible.
In late 1983 McLaren switched to a 1.5 litre TAG V6 engine built by Porsche. The MP4/1D served as the test mule for this engine.
Watson and Andrea de Cesaris drove the MP4/1 for most of the 1981 season, with Lauda replacing de Cesaris for 1982 and 1983. In 1982 the updated MP4/1B nearly brought Watson to the World Championship; he finished third behind Keke Rosberg and Didier Pironi with 39 points. The team finished second in the Constructors' Championship that year with 69 points.
For the 1983 season the car was updated into the MP4/1C. The season opened with a 1–2 finish at Round 2 in Long Beach: Watson won from 22nd on the grid — the farthest back a driver has won from in Formula One history — and Lauda finished second from 23rd despite a worsening leg cramp. As the Cosworth V8 became increasingly uncompetitive against the more powerful turbos of Renault, Ferrari, and BMW, Watson still managed a 3rd at the Detroit Grand Prix before the Cosworth car made its final race appearance in the Netherlands.
During the 1983 season McLaren worked with Techniques d'Avant Garde and Porsche to develop a turbocharged V6 built to Barnard's specifications. According to Watson in a 2009 interview, the MP4/1E was forced into appearing at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort after political manoeuvring by Lauda: Lauda went to Marlboro executive Aleardo Buzzi — behind the team's back — to complain about the lack of a turbo engine, prompting Buzzi to withhold committed funding for the TAG/Porsche programme. This infuriated Dennis and Barnard, who had designed the MP4/2 specifically for the new engine but now had to redesign the MP4/1 to "E" specification instead.
Watson, not Lauda, was the first to drive the MP4/1E at the Porsche proving ground. The engine was underdeveloped and unreliable, and the car did not win any races, but it demonstrated competitive straight-line speed: during qualifying for the 1983 Italian Grand Prix the McLarens joined the BMW-powered Brabhams as the only cars above 300 km/h through the Monza speed trap, faster than the longer-developed turbos from Renault, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo. Despite this, Lauda and Watson qualified only 13th and 15th — Lauda more than four seconds off pole, Watson 5.5 seconds off in his first race with the turbo car — and both retired with electrical problems on laps 25 and 14 respectively. The MP4/1E competed in only four races in total. BBC commentator Murray Walker drove the MP4/1C at Silverstone in 1983.
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