As for the sound, I saw a F1 practice at the French circuit in Magny cours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_Nevers_Magny-Cours), we were at turn 17 and the sound of the cars at full speed at turn 1 was HURTING! It's roughly half a mile away! I was inside the Prost Peugeot stand when they started the engine 15 feet from me. Ear protection mandatory!!! (and it hurts still...).
Never heard louder noise, and I was in the Air Force.
I haven't ever seen F1 cars race (it's on my "to do" list at some point, but I'll probably have to go to Europe to see them.) In general, race cars are loud though. For the past couple of years I've been to an American Le Mans Series race, and you've got cars blasting by loud enough to wake the dead (the GT1 Corvettes in particular.) On the flip side of the coin though, you've got the Audi R10s running 12 cylinder turbo diesel engines, and all you can hear as those go by is the sound of the turbos. It's actually a bit disconcerting to hear a racecar be that quiet...
As for the sound, I saw a F1 practice at the French circuit in Magny cours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_Nevers_Magny-Cours), we were at turn 17 and the sound of the cars at full speed at turn 1 was HURTING! It's roughly half a mile away!
I was inside the Prost Peugeot stand when they started the engine 15 feet from me. Ear protection mandatory!!! (and it hurts still...).
Never heard louder noise, and I was in the Air Force.
I would happily have driven one of those cars for free, mind.