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It's hard to know what is more enticing looking ahead to the 2017 MotoGP season, even though it's still six months and six races of the current, compelling campaign away. While this is the fourth consecutive year of the same four riders on the best two bikes, a major shake-up is looming, prompted by Jorge Lorenzo's decision to move to Ducati.
That will be worth watching from the moment Lorenzo first gets on a Desmosedici GP, especially if the various circumstances such as weather and ill-fated set-up gambles continue to make his Yamaha farewell tour a frustrating one. But what will happen in his current garage, when Maverick Vinales arrives from Suzuki to be Valentino Rossi's new team-mate?
In a feat that would normally be impossible when a three-time world champion leaves, Yamaha would appear to have set itself up to still have MotoGP's strongest rider line-up in 2017 and '18. Honda with Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, and Ducati with Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso, will also have a pair of race winners but it's impossible to go past Rossi and Vinales as a combination.
