Lotus F1 team to trial non twin-tusk nose in the United States GP

The Enstone F1 squad will trial a 2014 Ferrari/Mercedes-style low nose, as it pushes on with developments for its 2015 car.

Lotus will be forced to abandon its unusual twin-tusk design next season, following a push by F1's governing body the FIA to eliminate the aesthetically controversial nose designs that have appeared on cars this year.

The team has yet to decide which of its drivers will trial the prototype nose, which will be replaced with the conventional twin-tusk design for the race.

Lotus technical director Nick Chester told AUTOSPORT: "The rules are pushing everybody in that direction, so I think pretty much everybody will be looking at a fairly low and narrow nose [for next season].

"We're going to test a nose like that in Austin, really just to gather feedback for next year - to do some aero measurements and see what that does on track compared to what we see in the [wind] tunnel."

Lotus lies eighth in the constructors' championship with just eight points scored from 16 races this season, and Romain Grosjean confirmed during September's Italian GP that Lotus had abandoned development of the difficult E22 in order to focus earlier on its successor - the E23.

"We always have a curve where we tail off development of a current car and ramp up the new car," Chester added.

"We've probably just crossed over a bit earlier.

"Once we were in June we were already putting more work into the 2015 car, and whereas we might have run some developments a little later into the season on the current car, we haven't really - we've stopped those so we could put everything into next year's car."

END OF RENAULT ERA

The squad has also confirmed a switch from Renault to Mercedes engines for 2015 as it bids to get back to the front of the grid.

Chester admitted there was some sadness at ending a relationship that stretches back as far as 1995, when Benetton won its first F1 world titles, but said Lotus had to do everything in its power to avoid a repeat of this year's disappointing campaign.

"It was difficult because we're good friends with a lot of the guys from Renault, particularly when we were [the] works team," Chester added.

"But on the other hand we had a great opportunity to change and we have to follow where the best performance is."