Why has IWC abandoned the Ingenieur & F1 association?

I originially posted this as a comment
here, but
decided to start this discussion instead, especially because within a week of
posting the comment below, IWC released the new AMG-edition
watch, which unsurprisngly is not an
Ingenieur, but is a Pilot instead.

Any thoughts on why there is no love for the Ingenieur? I'm interested to see
what the forum thinks. Maybe too many people didn't like the rebranding of the
humble Ingenieur to be associated with the glitz and glamour of F1? Or maybe
it was just an unsuccessfuly marketing campaign?

My two awesome Ingeneiurs

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The Ingenieur's storyline was rebranded in 2013 to be the watch partnered with
the Mercedes AMG F1 team, but the rebranding and imagin was never really
pushed, and now the Ingeneiur almost has no presence in F1. The only time I
see the Ingeneiur associated with the Mercedes F1 team is on the wrists of the
pit crew and engineers wearing Ingenieurs (and I love it)--but that's it.

The Pilots line is basically the unofficial Mercedes F1 watch for a few years
now--both drivers (and their gloves), Toto, Andrew Shovelin wear Pilots--the
F1 branding is all about the Pilots watch.

My guess is that the Pilots line is more popular and what sells best (for sure
Pilot sells 100x better than the Ingenieur, so IWC just stopped their efforts
with the Ingenieur.

The Ingenieur is my favorite line (not including the current generation), so
I'm biased and wish IWC woudl've used the Ingenieur more in F1. I bought my
Ingenieur because I love F1 and the Mercedes AMG F1 team is my favorite team,
but the lack of Ingenieur presence has been a downer.

Thoughts from the forum on why the Ingenieur doesn't fit the F1 branding any
longer?

Hi Francis,

Firstly, I love your Ingeniuers - that carbon fibre edition, in particular, is
superb craftsmanship from Schaffhausen!

I'm also interested in forum opinion as to why the Ingenieur has lost the
association with F1. My guess is that it's simply a case of the Petronas team
preferring the Pilot's watches and Big Pilot series. But that's purely my
guess.

I was at the launch for the IWC-AMG Pilot's chronograph on Friday night and I
can say, having had a hands-on, the carbon fibre dial and titanium case are
superb. It's like the numbers sit above the dial - a 3D effect if you will.
Really well conceived and executed.

As for relevance to F1, I'll leave it to others to fill us in.

The partnership is based on the various parallels that exist
among motor ...
Mercedes-amg's hybrid fashions, showcasing how f1 generation is pioneering ...
IWC Schaffhausen released the Ingenieur Automatic Edition "AMG GT" in a ...
Enterprise that brings collectively top-flight game and social commitment at a
excessive level.

The drivers (pilots) have always worn Pilots watches out of the car. The pit
crew (engineers), if you look carefully, still have some Ingenieurs on their
wrists. Other team members have a variety of watches, including Portofinos
for the women (if I am allowed to use that term).

The Pilot line (around 50 models in the current collection, not counting the
multiple exclusive military special editions) seems to be more popular than
the Ingenieur line (7 models in current collection). I certainly hope to see
the Ingenieur line "refreshed" soon.