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Imagine resting your chin on your Respol Honda RC213V at 200mph. You want to get as low under the wind screen as possible, but resting your helmet directly on the fuel tank must come with some unpleasant vibrations at the very least. So why not put a small pad there to soften the connection? That the pad covers up the Repsol logotype suggests this is one of those on-the-fly additions rather than something planned in the off season.

Incidentally, only the rear portion of what appears to be the fuel tank on a MotoGP bike is actually that. Sharp observers may have noticed a seam that divides this area into two pieces, shown clearly here at the 2013 Valencia test. In this image, the brushed aluminum portion is the top section of fuel tank:

Beneath the front, carbon fiber section are some electronics components and a few other items I’ve not identified. The aluminum section presents the fuel filler valve in a convenient location for gassing up the bike. The rest of the tank extends down and toward the back of the bike, to be covered by the seat so that the rider sits directly on top of the main portion of fuel.

This keeps the weight from the fuel centrally located as it decreases over race distance. If the fuel were stored at the front or rear of the bike, the balance and thus handling would change as the weight in that space diminished.

©2014 by Scott Jones / PHOTO.GP – All Rights Reserved

Camera Info for track shot: Nikon D4 with Nikon 500mm f/4.0

Camera Info for pit lane shots: Nikon D4 with Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8

[mgallery keyword=”Marc Marquez”]