Neil Oatley designed the MP4/8 with a heavy reliance on electronics: it featured a semi-automatic transmission capable of switching to fully automatic, active suspension, two-way telemetry, and traction control systems, all developed in partnership with McLaren shareholder Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG). It was the first McLaren to carry barge boards and the first Ford-powered McLaren since the MP4/1C in 1983. The cars raced under numbers 7 and 8, numbers McLaren had adopted in 1978 from the vacated Brabham team after losing the 1/2 designation to Williams following the 1992 championship.
Honda had powered McLaren from 1988 to 1992 through a period of near-total championship dominance, but withdrew from Formula One after 1992 due to the worldwide recession. Unable to secure Renault engines as a replacement, Ron Dennis had to settle for customer Ford HBD7 V8 units. Because Benetton held a pre-existing factory contract with Ford, McLaren initially received a lesser customer-specification engine rated at approximately 680 hp — well below the 700 hp works Ford in the Benetton, the 745 hp Ferrari V12, and the 760–780 hp Renault V10 used by Williams. McLaren did secure the higher-specification Ford engines from after the British Grand Prix for most remaining rounds, though the older specification was retained in Andretti's car at Belgium to stockpile newer units for subsequent races.
Ayrton Senna, in his sixth and final season with McLaren, drove the MP4/8 alongside Michael Andretti — son of 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti — who arrived from CART. Senna initially praised the car's handling and nimbleness but recognised the power deficit to Alain Prost's Williams FW15C. He negotiated a race-by-race contract at one million dollars per Grand Prix. Despite the disadvantage, Senna led the championship through the first half of the season, winning in Brazil, at Monaco, and in the rain-soaked 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park — a drive widely regarded as one of the finest of his career. Prost asserted Williams's superiority in the second half of the year and clinched the title with two races remaining, but Senna won the final two rounds in Japan and Australia to finish with five victories and second place in the Drivers' Championship. McLaren were also runners-up in the Constructors' Championship. The car accumulated 84 points across the season, 73 of them contributed by Senna.
Michael Andretti's tenure was troubled. Testing restrictions in 1993 meant he never drove a Formula One car in the wet, and a string of early collisions left him with only three completed laps across his first three races. He never fully adapted to the active suspension and traction control systems absent from CART, and his continued US residency led to missed test days. By mutual agreement, Andretti was released after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he scored his only podium for the team — a result that remained, as of 2023, the last podium finish by an American driver in Formula One.
Mika Häkkinen replaced Andretti from the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, where he out-qualified Senna — a rare occurrence. Racing closely against Jean Alesi's Ferrari, Häkkinen ran too close at the final fifth-gear corner, lost downforce, and understeered into the barrier. He scored one podium in the remaining races before season's end.
During the 1993 season McLaren built a modified variant, the MP4/8B, to evaluate the Lamborghini LE3512 V12 engine. An agreement between Ron Dennis and Bob Lutz of Chrysler — which owned Lamborghini at the time — initiated the project. The engine had been present in Formula One since 1989 but had only run with lower-ranked teams; its best result was a fortunate third place at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. The modified car required three months of re-engineering to accommodate the longer and heavier V12 and was painted white with no markings beyond Goodyear branding. Senna and Häkkinen tested it at Silverstone on 20 September and subsequently at Estoril.
After his first drive, Senna suggested to engine designer Mauro Forghieri that the unit needed a less aggressive top end and a fuller mid-range. Forghieri acted on the advice. The revised engines lost 25 bhp at the peak but gained approximately 40 bhp over the 1993 race specification, reaching around 750 bhp — close to the Renault V10 and about 70 bhp ahead of the customer Ford V8. Chief engineer Giorgio Ascanelli described the outcome as "something pretty special — a bit longer and heavier than the V8 car, but more stable and easier on its tyres. And it was considerably more powerful."
Both Senna and Häkkinen were reportedly impressed. Häkkinen recalled one engine detonating on Silverstone's Hangar Straight with debris flying past his helmet, noting it had felt faster than the Ford up to the moment of failure. Senna speculated aloud that racing the Lamborghini in Japan would "be very interesting" and allegedly telephoned Dennis during the Estoril test urging serious consideration of the switch. Former McLaren engineer Ian Wright assessed in 2015 that, had the MP4/8 raced with the Lamborghini engine, "it would have had the pace to win the '93 championship comfortably."
The experiment went no further. McLaren had already agreed to use the Peugeot A6 V10 in 1994, and Senna had signed with Williams. The successor MP4/9 Peugeot was closely based on the MP4/8 but was blighted by severe engine unreliability and failed development promises from Peugeot. After a difficult 1994 campaign, McLaren began its long-running partnership with Mercedes in 1995. Following Senna's victory in Australia with the MP4/8, McLaren did not win again until the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, taken by David Coulthard in the MP4/12.
Sebastian Vettel drove Senna's McLaren MP4/8 at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed alongside Nigel Mansell's Williams FW14B. Vettel also used the car for a demonstration run at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as a tribute to Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, marking thirty years since the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.