MP4 stood for Marlboro Project Four – with Project Four being the name of Dennis' F2 team – and last year's car was named the MP4-31. However, Dennis left McLaren last year after over 35 years at the helm, losing his position as chairman and chief executive of McLaren Group. Following that departure, McLaren has cut the ties with one part of its history with Dennis by dropping the MP4 prefix.
The move comes as part of a rebranding of McLaren by one of the men who has replaced Dennis, with executive director Zak Brown overseeing a number of changes to the team's image since he started work in December.

A further change on top of the car name is expected to be the color, with McLaren set to run a predominantly orange livery – known as Papaya Orange – in reference to past cars. Having used the orange color scheme on a number of occasions during testing in the past, McLaren has not raced with an orange car in F1 since 1971, with Dennis having been unwilling to return to what he described as "the old color of McLaren."