7 things you need to know about MotoGP 2017

1. Intermediate tyres have been scrapped
For the 2017 season, riders will only have the choice between a full slick tyre, or a full wet tyre. The decision came at the recent meeting of the Grand Prix Commission in Spain, where it was deemed the medium compound wet tyre was equally if not more effective than the cut-slick type affair of the intermediate option. The scratching will not affect the maximum number of tyres allowed in the weekend's allocation, though it will mean an additional option of both front and rear slick will be made available.

2. Dummy cameras will adorn Moto2 and Moto3 bikes
Under last year's rules, Dorna required only the top six riders in the two smaller classes to have cameras fitted to their bikes. Proving just how critical teams and riders deem weight advantages, complaints of added weight and associated disadvantages of the GoPro camera equipment mounted to the bikes has instigated a rule change for the 2017 season. From next year, it will be a requirement for other machines not equipped with working cameras to carry dummy versions or weights, in the same positions.

3. Ducati said it will consider a Moto3 team
Don't get your hopes up about a learner-legal Panigale lobbing on showroom floors any time soon (though stranger things have happened), but Ducati Corse's Paolo Ciabatti has revealed the feeder class to the MotoGP championship is an avenue the firm will consider down the track.

The move would be a way the Italian factory could secure up-and-coming talent early to groom them for a switch to the premier class. Because if we're to believe reports around what it cost the firm to lure three-time MotoGP world champ Jorge Lorenzo to the red garage, Ducati could have developed and built a couple of Moto3 entries and ran a two-rider squad for the more or less the same price.

"Moto3 is something interesting," Ciabatti said.

"It is not a plan, but it is something we are thinking about. It is not going to happen next year, because decisions have not been made. But eventually, if everything goes right with our MotoGP project, we might consider a Moto3 bike."

4. Marco Simoncelli's dad is launching a Moto3 team
Speaking of Moto3 (and Italians named Paolo), the father of the late Marco Simoncelli will enter a two-rider team in the 2017 Moto3 World Championship. The SIC 58 Squadra Corse team has been cutting its teeth in the hugely competitive FIM CEV Repsol championship in Spain since 2015 and will make the jump to the world championship with Honda-powered machinery next year. The CEV team's Italian rider, Tony Arbolino, will make the switch with the crew and will be joined in the team by Moto3 regular, Tatsuki Suzuki.

5. Aerodynamics will play a bigger part than you might think
With the new rule banning aerodynamic winglets coming into force for the 2017 season, it's fair to assume we'll hear less about their benefits, or lack of. But as well as banning the offending protrusions on safety grounds, there has also been a new limit placed on the amount of fairing updates.

Previously unregulated, teams are now only allowed one update per rider per season, with all fairings having to be approved by MotoGP's technical director Danny Aldridge before being allowed on track. What it means is teams will be feverishly working on innovative fairing designs now to achieve as much down force as is legally possible without using conventional winglets, with a second and improved design, we expect, coming within the first half of the season.

In fact, Aldridge has conformed "most" manufacturers have already submitted various designs for review. "I cannot say too much about the actual designs, but I basically informed them of what would be approved and what would not."

6. Medical staff won't be able to talk
As well as only four helmeted mechanics now only allowed to assist a rider in pitlane during a flag-to-flag race, other tweaks to the rulebook for 2017 include restrictions over what medical staff can and cannot say and to whom.

On the grounds of improving rider confidentiality, the medical staff are no longer allowed to make a statement to any third party, including the media, unless the person is an immediate relative or they have been granted permission by the FIM and Dorna.

Riders are also now bound to 'fess up on any illness or injuries they've received while away from the circuit and will need to gain clearance to ride by MotoGP's medical team.

7. The first race is just over three months away
The lights will go out on the opening round of the 2017 MotoGP season on Sunday, March 26, under the bright lights in Qatar. There'll be three official MotoGP tests held between now and then with the first one scheduled for the end of January at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia (January 30 to February 1). Two weeks later they'll head south to Phillip Island for three days during (February 15-17) before another three-day test takes place in Qatar two weeks before the season opening race March (10-12). The Australian round of the MotoGP will be held over October 20-22, 2017.