Norris lost seventh place to Piastri at the start, but regained it when Nico Hulkenberg came into the pits.
For the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Ricciardo and Norris were teammates at the papaya constructor and the Aussie finished behind his teammate on both occasions.
Piastri finished only 16th in qualifying after a disappointing Q1 exit, but the home favourite took advantage of several Safety Cars and red flags.
The papayas never seemed competitive at any point in the race and this will be a huge concern for Zak Brown.
The troubles for McLaren were made worse by the retirement of Oscar Piastri, Norris' rookie teammate, whose F1 debut was cut short.
McLaren scheduled one of its two filming days for Bahrain on Tuesday in order to make sure that its new F1 challenger could run without issues.
Russell appeared perplexed by the FIA directive, claiming that something like this made no sense in any manner.
The exterior of the car is painted in the same hues as in years past, with prominent accents of McLaren's papaya orange.
The team's drop to fifth place in the constructors' championship in 2022, according to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, was a "disappointing" outcome.
Despite Daniel Ricciardo's struggles to find consistency, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claims that the Woking Formula 1 squad learned a lot from the Australian.
