Gene Haas, the NASCAR owner who is looking to move into Formula 1, will reportedly pay a visit to Lotus headquarters in Oxfordshire to pick up more information and experience before entering the sport.

The 61-year-old has been granted permission to enter a team next year and it had been thought that the 'Haas Formula' setup would be based in North Carolina.

However, F1 Today claims that the American's visit to Enstone has sparked rumours that he will ditch that plan in favour of buying into an existing constructor in need of financial help, with Lotus, Marussia and Caterham all tipped as possible options.

The report has suggested that nothing to that extent has been confirmed, but another option could be to delay his entry onto the grid until 2016 in order to give more time for development of the cars, making them more competitive.

Haas is widely believed to have approached Italian company Dallara to design a chassis for this new team.