The production-based series has come under increasing fire for the overwhelming dominance of two Kawasaki and Ducati in recent seasons, and in particular of Jonathan Rea.

Kawasaki rider Rea wrapped up his third successive WSBK title with two rounds to spare at Magny-Cours last month, and went on to bolster his win tally for the season to 14 at Jerez last weekend.

A reverse-grid rule was introduced this season to try and make the series more competitive, but this has had little bearing on results, with only Rea, Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri having won races in 2017.

Next season, a number of technical rule changes will be introduced with the aim of reducing the gap in performance between the top teams and the rest of the field.

The most important change is the new system of concession points, which will be used to restrict engine development of certain manufacturers while allowing others to catch up.

This will be achieved by allowing "teams that have achieved fewer concession points" to introduce "updated concession parts", according to an official championship statement.

Concession points will be awarded on a 3-2-1 basis to the top three riders in every dry race, and any manufacturer that scores fewer nine fewer points than the top manufacturer after three races will be permitted to update a "concession part" of its choice.

In addition, any manufacturer that is more than 36 concession points behind the top manufacturer at the end of the season is permitted to change its "concession parts" the following year, while organisers also reserve the right to grant another update to a new manufacturer or existing manufacturer with a new design of engine.

Privateer teams will also be granted access to cost-capped factory engine parts in order "to help them reach performance levels similar to the factory supported teams".

Another change is a new rev-limiting system, which replaces the existing system of using air restrictors to help level out engine performance.

Certain engine, chassis and suspension components, known as "approved parts", will also now be price-capped to ensure "access and availability to all parts for all teams."