To myself and the Americans I know, we don't have any national loyalty to this bunch whatsoever.
As a fellow American, I'm inclined to agree. No idea how many at their shop are actually Americans, but I can guess it's roughly half, not counting boss Gene. Quite frankly, I could care less about this team. Their NASCAR team does so much better there than the F1 team does last I checked (I stopped watching NASCAR last year for the record). I feel no national connection with these people whatsoever, only disappointment in how they seem to treat the F1 team as a side hobby. Imagine the morale of the people that actually work there.
As for the livery, remember when I said in the topic about the new unfinished oceanic Williams livery that that one wasn't lazy? Trust me: this one is. The Russian tri-color on three different spots on each side of the car and on the nose, and nothing else but a blank skin? Seriously? Granted their logo doesn't inspire much for ideas, but the team has done better with their liveries in the past, so not much for excuses here.
Lastly, just read that the FIA says the ban doesn't apply here, but doesn't say much else. Can't blame boss Gene for this; his hands are tied as far as what sponsors want for colors. And since Uralkali is sponsoring Nikita, Haas didn't have much for options. It's not like there's a line of representatives for other companies at Haas F1 headquarters, right? Gunther's not in charge, nor is he concerned with politics. Same with Mick, though his comments on the whole thing strike me as if he knows he won't be there more than a season or two. Maybe he'll take Gunther with him to the land of red horses? One can dream.
If anyone is to blame for the arrangement, its Uralkali themselves. Papa Maezpin must have known about the loophole in the ban that doesn't extend to sponsorship/livery colors, so there is no way he can claim ignorance. They could have chosen any color arrangement, but they went with this. They knew this would p!ss people off, and it has, generating attention of many kinds in a car that has little to no hope of winning even if each Mercedes (both black and teal) and all four bulls wreck or go up in smoke, to say nothing about Ferrari(sadly), McLaren, or Alpine. Ultimately, this has got to be putting Uralkali in a positive light...but only in Russia; which may be all they care about.
Eric Bischoff seems to be right: controversy does create cash.