The chassis was a development of the previous year's MP4/15, refined by the same core design group. Mario Illien produced the bespoke engine for the car. One of the more distinctive technical features of the MP4-16 was its steering wheel arrangement: Häkkinen used a butterfly-style wheel while Coulthard opted for a version with a lower grip. McLaren employed four gearshift paddles — two blue paddles for gear selection and a lower pair allowing either hand to operate the clutch. The livery was broadly similar to the 2000 car but with subtle revisions, retaining the silver-and-black West-sponsored colour scheme. Sponsorship for the season included West, Mobil 1, Mercedes-Benz, Hugo Boss, SAP, Siemens Mobile, and Sun Microsystems.
The MP4-16's aerodynamic package was competitive but not sufficiently developed to keep pace with Ferrari's dominant F2001 or the increasingly strong Williams FW23. The Mercedes-Benz engine was less powerful than the BMW units fitted to Williams and less reliable than Ferrari's in-house power unit. The team's handling of the return of electronic driver aids was also judged to have been inadequate relative to rivals.
Häkkinen had his least successful season since 1997. The most dramatic episode came in Spain, where he suffered a clutch and engine failure on the final lap while leading the race. Despite winning two Grands Prix across the season, he announced his retirement — initially framed as a sabbatical — at the season's end, to be replaced by compatriot Kimi Räikkönen.
Coulthard, by contrast, delivered the best campaign of his career to that point. He won two races early in the season and maintained a championship challenge against Michael Schumacher before McLaren lost parity with Ferrari as the year progressed. He ultimately held onto second place in the Drivers' Championship ahead of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello.
McLaren finished second in the Constructors' Championship with 102 points, ahead of the resurgent Williams team. The team's own assessment was that second place owed something to good fortune — Ferrari's advantage had been larger than the points gap implied.
The MP4-16 represented a transitional moment for McLaren. The departure of Häkkinen closed one of the most celebrated driver partnerships in the team's history, and the arrival of Räikkönen for 2002 marked the beginning of a new era. Adrian Newey's continued tenure at McLaren meant the design philosophy remained consistent, but the 2001 season demonstrated that Ferrari had found a technical and operational margin that McLaren would struggle to close in subsequent years. The MP4-16 was the last McLaren car raced by Häkkinen, one of only four drivers in history at that point to win back-to-back Drivers' Championships.