alright people, can someone put some light on how f1 engineers manage to gain power from the engines when rule change is being enforced? l mean when the engine rules were changes, making it mandatory for engines to last 4 weekends from 1 (v 10 era), the power did not drop from 900 bhp and some teams even managed to gain power and made engines develop 950bhp! WOW! did the engineers find something new? why could not they do that before the rules were changed and give themselves a more reliable car? or incorporate the changes in the 1 weekend engine to gain even more power?
also, when whe engines were downsized, to v8s, the cars seem to have gone even faster, how come? why did not the engineers rce with v8s before if they could make them faster then the v10s? get my point?
but why did not the engineers do that before the rule change? they are hunting for a tenth on a second anyway

When your talking about getting extra power, this does not actually happen. Teams do not look for ways to create power, they look for ways to use it more effectively and efficiently. They will disperse the energy created by the engine across the car more efficiently creating more HP.
Its the same with the down size of the engines. The engines didnt make the car faster, but the teams development in aerodynamics at the time was huge.