Pre-season During the first three-day test at
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, many teams experienced
porpoising on their cars (resonation of the car due to the ground effect, making the car rock rapidly) which posed a driveability and reliability issue. Uniquely, the MCL36 did not appear to exhibit any issues with porpoising, although Key said "We suffer from it a bit, but it's not a major concern or a major distraction for the drivers." The lack of porpoising was partly linked to the MCL36's edge wing (an aerodynamic component on the outer edge of the car's floor). The solution was copied by several other teams over the course of the season. During the test, the team was forced to fit the most aggressive cooling options to the car's brakes, which was not expected to be needed until the second round of testing in the more demanding Bahraini conditions. After the first round of testing, the car was generally expected to be competitive and enable McLaren to join a group of front-running teams. However, the second test at
Bahrain International Circuit in higher temperatures exposed an issue with the MCL36's brakes, preventing the team from completing any long-run tests. As the team later put it, they "simply didn't have a cooling package big enough to cope" with the hotter conditions in Bahrain. The team said they had been unable to "do any optimization" to the car at the Bahrain test.
Opening rounds McLaren introduced an "interim solution" to its front brake issues for the
Bahrain Grand Prix. The team was disappointed in its performance, as neither car made it to the final stage of qualifying: Norris qualified thirteenth and Ricciardo eighteenth. Ricciardo stated that he had treated the race as a test session in an attempt to recover time he had lost in the pre-season test. The result placed the team ninth in the Constructors' Championship (WCC). No upgrades were made to the car at the
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as parts were delayed to prioritise the front brake cooling solution. Norris qualified eleventh and Ricciardo twelfth, but the latter started fourteenth after receiving a grid penalty. Norris finished seventh, battling for sixth place on the final lap. Ricciardo did not finish the race, retiring with undiagnosed mechanical issues. Norris qualified fourth and Ricciardo qualified seventh, and finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The team improved to fourth in the WCC, and Norris to eighth and Ricciardo to eleventh in the WDC. The MCL36 featured a new beam wing for the
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Qualifying was wet, and Norris qualified third and Ricciardo sixth for the
sprint. The drivers finished the sprint in fifth and sixth respectively. The race started in wet conditions, and out of the second corner, Ricciardo understeered into Sainz, ending the latter's race. Ricciardo suffered diffuser damage, and finished eighteenth. Norris made his way back up to third by the end of the first lap, but was overtaken by Leclerc and ran in fourth for most of the race, managing his gap to fifth place comfortably. In the closing laps, Leclerc bounced over a curb and had a mild collision with the barriers, allowing Norris to inherit third place. Norris improved to sixth in the WDC. The MCL36 was the only car (and Norris the only driver) from outside the top three teams (Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes) to finish on the podium in the 2022 season. The car's front suspension was strengthened for reliability and an additional floor stay was added to minimise porpoising in upgrades introduced at the
Miami Grand Prix. Norris qualified eighth and Ricciardo fourteenth for the race. During the race, Norris was involved in a collision with
Pierre Gasly whose
AlphaTauri AT03 had suffered steering damage. Both retired from the race. Ricciardo finished eleventh but was demoted to thirteenth by a time penalty for overtaking off-track. Norris fell to seventh in the WDC. McLaren introduced a total of ten upgrades for the
Spanish Grand Prix, which consisted of changes to various aerodynamic parts, brakes, and suspension. Ricciardo likened the Friday practice running to winter testing given the quantity of changes. Ricciardo qualified ninth, and Norris, who lost a lap time due to a track limits violation, qualified eleventh. Norris, despite suffering from
tonsillitis, finished eighth. Ricciardo finished twelfth. At the
Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren ran the car with extra cooling on the front brakes and different steering geometry and rear-view mirrors to account for the nature of the
Circuit de Monaco. Norris and Ricciardo qualified fifth and fourteenth respectively. In a rain affected race, Norris finished sixth and set the fastest lap, and Ricciardo finished twelfth.
Mid-season rounds The MCL36 was run with a track-specific aero kit to reduced load and more cooling options for the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Norris qualified for the race eleventh and Ricciardo twelfth, and finished ninth and eighth respectively. Team orders were used twice in the race, first to keep Ricciardo behind Norris in the early stages and then to keep Norris behind Ricciardo in the final laps. The team's strategy was criticized for being ineffective and compromising both drivers' pace. Ricciardo fell to thirteenth in the WDC. For the
Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren updated the rear wing assembly for aerodynamic efficiency and changed the location of the floor stay for better stiffness. Norris suffered a power unit issue during qualifying which prevented him from setting a time in the second stage. He started fourteenth, while Ricciardo qualified ninth. During the first virtual safety car, Ricciardo was ninth and Norris twelfth, when McLaren attempted to
double-stack a pit stop. After a slow stop for Ricciardo, the pit crew fitted the wrong tyres to Norris's car before correcting the mistake. Norris qualified for the race sixth; and held fifth in the race until losing the position in the pits during the final safety car, finishing sixth. Ricciardo qualified fourteenth, but restarted twelfth after the red flag caused by
Zhou Guanyu's first lap incident. A failure of the
drag reduction system on his MCL36 necessitated an extra stop, and Ricciardo finished the race thirteenth. The result dropped Ricciardo to fourteenth in the WDC. The car featured revised brake ducts and rear wing endplates beginning with the
Austrian Grand Prix. Norris suffered an engine failure in the first practice session and reverted to an older engine for the rest of the weekend. He also experienced brake issues during qualifying, and he qualified fifteenth and Ricciardo sixteenth for the second sprint of the season. The two finished eleventh and twelfth respectively in the sprint, which became tenth and eleventh on the starting grid after penalties were applied for other drivers. During the race Norris was awarded a time penalty for exceeding track limits, a penalty he said cost him the chance to challenge for sixth place as he finished seventh. Ricciardo finished ninth. Ricciardo improved to twelfth in the WDC.
Alpine drew level with McLaren in the WCC, but McLaren retained fourth place after the countback. McLaren remained at the
Red Bull Ring after the race for a
Pirelli tyre test, with Ricciardo and Norris both doing a day of testing of the 2023 tyre compounds. McLaren introduced another substantial upgrade package for the
French Grand Prix, which featured a new diffuser, underfloor, rear brake ducts, and sidepods, as well as a change to the rear wing endplate for reliability. Most significantly, the shape of the sidepods changed dramatically. Throughout the
turbo-hybrid era, teams pursued a narrow sidepod that exposed as much of the floor as possible, but the 2022 regulation changes limited this design concept's potential due to the primacy of the ground effect. The new MCL36 sidepods were similar to those featured on the title-challengers, the
Ferrari F1-75 and
Red Bull Racing RB18, with an emphasis on managing tyre wake and the introduction of a downwashing plane that delivers air to the rear of the car. Ricciardo started ninth after grid penalties for two drivers ahead of him, and finished the race in ninth place. Norris had a poor start, and finished seventh. The result cost McLaren fourth in the WCC, and they fell to fifth behind Alpine. Beginning with the
Hungarian Grand Prix, the MCL36 featured revised front brake cooling system and new underfloor flow conditioners designed to better engage the diffuser. Norris qualified fourth and Ricciardo ninth. Norris finished seventh and Ricciardo finished thirteenth, but was demoted to fifteenth by a five-second penalty awarded for causing a collision with
Lance Stroll. An extensive list of updates débuted at the
Belgian Grand Prix. This package included a low-drag rear wing, beam wing, and rear corner assembly, an updated diffuser and floor assembly, new front suspension track rods and a new winglet in the rear corner, and a streamlined circuit-specific engine cover. The overall aim of the package was to improve aerodynamic efficiency and maximise straight-line speed to take advantage of the low downforce requirements of
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Norris qualified tenth, but was relegated to seventeenth on the grid due as the team exceeded the number of allowable power unit components. Ricciardo qualified eleventh, but was promoted to seventh on the grid due to penalties for other drivers. Both drivers were caught in DRS trains. Norris finished the race twelfth and Ricciardo fifteenth, resulting in Ricciardo falling from twelfth to thirteenth in the WDC.
Closing rounds The car was run in a low-downforce specification for the
Italian Grand Prix. Norris and Ricciardo qualified seventh and eighth respectively, which became third and fourth respectively once grid penalties were applied to other drivers. The clutch map on Norris's MCL36 failed at the race start, forcing him to launch the car manually and costing him several positions on the first lap. He finished seventh, while Ricciardo retired after an oil leak caused a failure on his Mercedes engine. The race result meant Ricciardo moved from thirteenth to fourteenth in the WDC. The MCL36 featured a special livery for the
Singapore Grand Prix (see ). The package was initially given only to Norris due to a shortage of parts. Aerodynamically, the upgrade included new radiator inlet and floor designs, and again shifted the sidepod design closer to that of the RB18. The car again featured the special livery for the
Japanese Grand Prix (see ). Norris qualified in tenth and Ricciardo in eleventh, and both finished in those same places in the race, which was shortened by heavy rain. The team lost fourth place to Alpine in the WCC, and Ricciardo fell to twelfth in the WDC.
2021 IndyCar champion
Álex Palou replaced Ricciardo for the first practice session at the
United States Grand Prix, fulfilling the first of two mandatory rookie practice sessions. Both Ricciardo and Norris took part in
Pirelli's 2023 tyre test in the second practice session. Norris qualified eighth and Ricciardo qualified seventeenth, but penalties for other drivers promoted Norris to sixth and Ricciardo to sixteenth. During the race, Norris's car was struck by debris from a separate incident; after the safety car ended he pitted from ninth place and rejoined the track thirteenth, but finished sixth. Ricciardo finished sixteenth. McLaren added several track-specific features to the MCL36 at the
Mexico City Grand Prix, namely an extensive cooling package and extra winglets on the rear brake ducts to improve downforce. Norris qualified eighth, and Ricciardo qualified eleventh. Ricciardo collided with
Yuki Tsunoda and was issued with a ten-second penalty. Norris, who was on the medium to hard strategy, finished ninth. at the São Paulo Grand Prix. He retired from the race with electrical issues. Norris fell ill before the
São Paulo Grand Prix, prompting McLaren to prepare
Nyck de Vries as a replacement. Norris was however able to participate in the weekend, qualifying fourth for the final sprint of the season, while Ricciardo qualified fourteenth. Norris finished seventh in the sprint, but started the race sixth after penalties for other drivers, while Ricciardo finished eleventh. Ricciardo collided with
Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap, which caused both to retire from the race and for Ricciardo to be awarded a three-place grid penalty for the next race. The incident also required a safety car, and after the restart Norris collided with Leclerc. Although both continued the race, Norris was awarded a five-second time penalty, although he also retired from the race with electrical issues. McLaren lost fourth to Alpine in the WCC. The car featured a second special livery for the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (see ). The team tested a new floor as part of the development program for their car during free practice. Norris qualified seventh and Ricciardo qualified tenth, but the latter was demoted to thirteenth on the starting grid due to his penalty from the previous race. Norris finished sixth and set the fastest lap of the race, and Ricciardo finished ninth. McLaren finished the season fifth in the WCC, while Norris finished seventh and Ricciardo eleventh in the WDC. The MCL36 remained at
Yas Marina Circuit following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be used in the annual post-season test.
Oscar Piastri, who replaced Ricciardo for , participated in the test after Alpine agreed to release Piastri from his contract early. Piastri drove the car as run in the season and completed 123 laps, while Norris tested the 2023 Pirelli compounds over 115 laps. == Assessment and characteristics ==