F1 community supports Building Blocks campaign.

The sight of the high and mighty in Formula One daubing children's building blocks with colour at the Belgian Grand Prix may have been a strange one for some, but was all in a good cause as they helped raise funds for the latest Tommy's charity campaign.

Drivers from the length and breadth of the Spa-Francorchamps pit-lane turned out to add their names to the Building Blocks project, organised by Lisa Dennis, wife of McLaren boss Ron on behalf of baby charity Tommy's, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The event will be marked by a display and auction of some 150 children's building blocks, decorated and autographed by famous names from sport, the arts and business, in order to raise funds to help discover the causes of stillbirth, miscarriage and prematurity, and methods of detecting and preventing them.

The building block motif was chosen as it represents a traditional nursery toy which has aided the development of babies and toddlers for many generations. However, each year, over 250,000 babies in the UK alone to not get the chance to fully develop during pregnancy, and it is in an attempt to reduce this number that the campaign is being organised.

Among those joining the likes of world champion Michael Schumacher and Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello in adding their names to the blocks are Olympic champions Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman and Mathew Pinsent models Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford; entertainers Tina Turner, Catherine Zeta Jones and Sylvester Stallone; and artist Damien Hirst.

Each block, once completed, will be put on display in the window of participating Debenhams stores across the UK, before being included in an sale to be conducted by internet auctioneers eBay between 4-23 November. During that time, the blocks will also appear at the new Bloomberg LP art gallery in the heart of London. Fifteen selected blocks will be kept back from public sale to be auctioned by Bonhams at a private VIP function on 23 November.