Perseverance Rover to drive carefully for months while helicopter hangs from underside?

The image below is cropped from the high resolution version of NASA's Mars Helicopter and Perseverance Rover PIA23824 and shows the helicopter in it's stowed position on the underside of the rover next to one of the rover's wheels.

The caption says:

The Mars Helicopter, visible in lower center of the image, was attached to the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover at Kennedy Space Center on April 6, 2020. The helicopter will be deployed onto the Martian surface about two-and-a-half months after Perseverance lands.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.

To me this suggests the following interrelated questions:

1. For about "about two-and-a-half months" the helicopter will be in danger of being hit by a passing rock as curiosity drives around the martian terrain. Will minimizing this risk require that the Perseverance rover drive more slowly, observe terrain more carefully, and for its route to be vetted by ground crews more thoroughly than after the helicopter is deployed?
2. What is the vertical clearance for the helicopter when the rover is on a flat surface? From the photo it looks to be zero or even negative!

click for full size or visit the NASA page linked above