If Formula One were not already experiencing a sober enough time in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s death, the danger at its heart was front and centre yet again in practice at the Hungaroring. An accident-free weekend would have been perfect for the sport as it comes to terms with the first driver killed while racing since Ayrton Senna in 1994, but it was not to be. Hearts were briefly in mouths again when Sergio Pérez careered off the track, into the wall and flipped over in the first practice session.

Fortunately Pérez climbed from his Force India car unharmed. He had lost the rear end, due to a suspension problem, on the outside of turn 11, went nose-on into the opposite barrier, knocking his front right wheel off, which, still held by the tethers, wedged beneath the car, causing it to roll over and come to a rest upside down.

It was a nasty looking accident but the Mexican emerged quickly and after a check-up at the medical centre, returned to the pits unharmed.

But it was a reminder, if indeed any were needed this week, that much as the sport and the fans have become used to drivers climbing unhurt from wrecks, F1 remains inherently dangerous.

It is something of which the drivers are more than aware but that some believe may have become less than obvious in the years before Bianchi’s death.

Lewis Hamilton made the point unequivocally. “People watching generally underestimate the danger of our sport,” the double world champion said. “They think that there has not been anything dangerous for 20 years. They think we just sit there but when we are out there we are driving this thing that is bloody fast and one slip-up and we are in the wall. And that hurts. It is there always in our minds that we are getting in a car and there are dangers involved in it.”

That an underestimation of the danger may have occurred is largely a result of the safety measures instigated since 1994. Roland Ratzenberger, the Simtek driver, died on the same weekend as Senna.

Circuits have been sanitised and, taking two examples, the huge crashes of Mark Webber at Valencia in 2010 and Robert Kubica at Montreal in 2007, from which both drivers emerged virtually unscathed, proved car safety has advanced considerably.

Bianchi’s crash at Suzuka last year that caused his death refocused the spotlight on the safety question.

The FIA’s report after the incident stated the Frenchman had not slowed sufficiently at the time. But equally the trackside presence of the recovery vehicle with which his car impacted, on a wet track, without the safety car being deployed, has been strongly criticised. The report also said that given the force of the impact, neither skirts on the tractor nor an enclosed cockpit would have made a difference.

But the latter, known to have been looked into previously by the FIA and focused upon again after Dan Wheldon was killed in an IndyCar race in 2011, has also been on the agenda again this weekend.

Hamilton believed it was a route F1 may yet take. “I saw some pictures [of a cockpit design], which I think looked pretty cool,” he said.

“Whether or not it would work, I don’t know, but definitely, as we are always talking about improving safety, I’d imagine that at some stage it may be a change F1 would do.

“I’m never against any changes as long as they are positive for safety but also for racing, and that it doesn’t take away the enjoyment factor.”

The latter, he was also clear to point out, was a central factor in why drivers take to the track, and that the danger the sport is so keen to eliminate was a fundamental part of the attraction. “Whatever it is I do, I do dangerous things because dangerous things are exciting and where the thrill comes from,” he said. “I don’t think they could ever take that away from racing and I guess if they did, I wonder whether it would have the same excitement.”

Whatever potential changes for the future of the sport are in store, it was the more recent events of Bianchi’s death and funeral on Tuesday, attended by the drivers, that continued to resonate through the paddock.

Recently John Surtees, world champion as a 500cc motorcyclist and also in F1, explained how the camaraderie and closeness of drivers had led him to meet his first wife, when she was dancing with Jim Clark at a hotel in Spa.

That is generations and a world away from the highly individual lifestyles of the current drivers, who seldom mix, but a time that was recalled when they came together to mourn their colleague.

Jenson Button said: “As you would expect, it was a very emotional day. People were there to pay their respects and say goodbye to Jules, including a lot of people involved in motor sport. It was important for us as drivers to be there as well, to show we are as one. To say goodbye.

“We might not be as friendly together as we used to be back in the 70s, we’re not best friends, but we look out for each other and we definitely don’t want anything to happen to any one of us.

“I think it really showed how close we are. Perhaps we don’t show it that often.”