Heidfeld running in circles with new-look lid.

Nick Heidfeld has unveiled the crash helmet design he will run at the is weekend's German Grand Prix, the result of a competition organised on behalf of charity by his official website.

More than 9000 ideas were submitted by fans of the BMW Sauber driver, but Heidfeld admits that the design eventually chosen stood out immediately as he and personal helmet designer Jens Munser took on the onerous task of selecting a winner.

"This helmet stood out from all the rest - in fact, as soon as I saw it, I thought that it was a likely winner," Heidfeld said of Tamas Simon's eye-catching effort, "My immediate response was just 'wow!'. I was really looking forward to seeing this special design realised on my new helmet."

Hungarian Simon's design is based on concentric circles and blends shades of green, yellow and pink with more neutral white, black and grey to produce a look that is set to stand out over the Nurburgring weekend. Simon will present Heidfeld with the helmet ahead of morning practice on the opening day of the meeting, and the German will wear it throughout the weekend in place on the green-black-white design he introduced ahead of the 2009 season.

"It's a great honour to have designed this special helmet for Nick," Simon, who will be attending his first-ever grand prix, admitted, "It's difficult to sum up the feeling in words."

The Schuberth helmet will be auctioned off after Sunday's race, raising money for the RTL charity Wir helfen Kindern as part of the broadcaster's 2009 telemarathon fundraising event. Heidfeld will launch the bidding today [10 July] at the Golf Grand Prix event to be held in the new Eifeldorf at the N?rburgring and, thereafter, bids can be submitted by e-mail to auktion@spendenmarathon.de.