By an unnerving coincidence, at about the same time as news was sweeping the paddock that the family of Jules Bianchi is to take legal action against the FIA, the Formula One Group and Marussia, an incident was taking place on track that brought the French racing driver very much to mind.

Nico Rosberg ran over an inspection cover at Ste Devote and lifted it into the air, striking the front of Jenson Button's car.

At first the exact cause of the incident, which left the German with a rear puncture and the Briton with a puncture and significant damage to his front wing and suspension, was unclear.

But as officials realised what had happened, the session was red flagged and the offending cover replaced and a check made on all other covers and manholes around the circuit.

Part of the process of preparing Monaco is the welding of all such covers and manholes, and therefore many will describe this as a freak incident... but aren't they all?

"A race track is a controlled environment, and we take enough risks as racing drivers," said Button. "Normally, the safety standards here are very good, but that incident is something we don't want to see again. It was lucky that the drain cover stayed quite low on the ground."

Indeed it was. Looking at the damage to the front of the McLaren one shudders to think what might have happened had the cover struck the Briton, especially on a circuit where spectators are in such close proximity.

"It's never acceptable when there is an incident like this," Button's teammate, Fernando Alonso, told reporters. "It's something that we didn't take care of enough before practice in terms of circuit checks, in terms of the FIA, and everyone has to go into the details to make sure everything is safe to run.

"This is another reason to come back to the canopy idea," he added. "Let's make sure that between all of us, between the sport in general, we minimise the risks that are always there."

Shortly after, at the official press conference, it was revealed that teams are still in the dark as to what form of driver protection, the halo or aero screen, and whether they will be in place for next season.

"It's a tricky question to answer, that one," admitted Red Bull's Paul Monaghan, "because it involves the FIA who are not represented here to discuss that one and I think it would be...

"It's fair to say there are two systems available: halo and aero screen," he continued. "Both have merits, both have downsides to them and whilst the assessment of that is still going on, I think we should let that process continue.

"There's a (technical regulations) meeting tomorrow at which we can discuss it further, hopefully from there there will be some conclusions and that, I think, is the state of play for all of us at the present time."

"There's a deadline later in the year to go through the final decisions as to how this is going to pan out," added Toro Rosso's James Key. "I think it's fair to say there aren't any opinions yet because it's still very much a work in progress and it's a good thing to be looking at.

"It's important that we always look at these new ideas for safety, but I think that mid-year is when we will begin to know exactly where it's going to go so Paul is right, we need to wait and see what further discussions hold."

"I think the halo solution may be a little bit more mature," said Nick Chester of Renault, "people have done a little bit more work with it, but there's a lot more to talk about tomorrow in the tech regs meeting.

"The work is not yet done," said Paddy Lowe. "There will be a big discussion tomorrow to decide on what are the next steps."

With a mind on the Button incident, not to mention the impending legal action from the Bianchi family, perhaps the sport will be spurred into action.