If the injection of three massive names into the 2017 Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) wasn't enough to spice up proceedings, there will be even more intrigue when the season kicks off at Phillip Island on February 26 as Honda and Kawasaki unveil updated machinery.

Honda's factory riders Nicky Hayden and MotoGP convert Stefan Bradl will line up on the all-new homologation-special CBR1000RR SP2, while the Kawasaki pairing of Jonathan Rea and his teammate Tom Sykes – world champion and runner-up respectively in 2016 – will have an up-spec limited-edition ZX-10RR at their disposal.

But it certainly won't be a two-marque race, with all the planets aligning for the most competitive season in years with a smorgasbord of potential race winners.


  
Aruba.it Racing Ducati, fresh from winning the last six races of the 2016 season with Chaz Davies, will head into 2017 eager to extend that advantage – amplified by the inclusion of returning Italian star Marco Melandri – while Pata Yamaha (Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark) will be a much more competitive team after a year in the production-based series.

And on it goes. MV Agusta (Leon Camier) also made huge development strides in 2016, while Aprilia's decision to return to WorldSBK at the factory-support level sets the foundation for Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori to be fighting hard at the front on their Milwaukee-backed machines.

And finally, while Suzuki doesn’t have an official presence in WorldSBK, it does have a new race-ready GSX-R1000R, which it unveiled at the Intermot motorcycle show in Cologne in early October alongside the CBR1000RR SP2 and ZX-10RR.

In particular, the arrival of the SP2 to replace the long-serving CBR1000RR is a massive shot in the arm for Honda, with Bradl timing his move to WorldSBK with absolute precision.


The sophisticated electronics on the new Honda now puts it in the same league as its well-equipped contemporaries – closing a gulf that was becoming profound – which will not only hearten Bradl but also provide Hayden with a major shot at adding a WorldSBK title to his MotoGP success in 2006.

As well as rookie Bradl, Laverty and Melandri make up the trio of top-shelf new faces in the 2017 WorldSBK title, the duo returning to the
championship where they won 32 races between them this decade. Laverty has been competing in MotoGP for the last two years, while Melandri returns to racing after a spell on the sidelines.
 
Meanwhile, the independent team ranks in 2017 are also bursting with talent, and for Althea BMW that means classy Spaniard Jordi Torres and promising young German Markus Reiterberger. Torres was sixth in the 2016 WorldSBK title in a magnificent performance on the S 1000 RR.

New arrivals include Swiss rider Randy Krummenacher (Puccetti Kawasaki), Italian Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Kawasaki) and Riccardo Russo (Guandalini Yamaha).

With most of the teams and rosters finalised – only some privateer teams are yet to declare their hand – pre-season testing happened at the Spanish circuits of Aragon and Jerez in November.