Legge wants more F1 experience

"I still need to get lots of experience," said Legge. "After all, the past season has been my first real year of competitions.

"But I'm happy to have been rather fast and especially able to keep my concentration high. I understood the workings of traction control, which caused me to make that mistake, and I found carbon brakes simply impressive.

"I was used to brake with my left foot but these are out of this world."

Legge has been racing single-seaters since 2000 and won three races in the U.S. Toyota Atlantic series this year, finishing third overall.

She became the first woman in more than a decade to test a Formula One car.

More recently, American Sarah Fisher performed a brief demonstration run in a McLaren at Indianapolis before the 2002 U.S. Grand Prix.

Minardi said the Guildford-born racer had set a series of quick and consistent times after crashing into a concrete wall on Tuesday after just one lap. Legge bruised a finger in the accident.

"I knew you must release the steering wheel when you're about to hit something, but I tried to control the car regardless and the wheel had a violent reaction," she told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"However, on the next day, I managed to drive over almost half a race distance and I'm happy and excited. This test with the Minardi team has been a marvellous experience.

"The real difficulty is managing to think very quickly. Muscles count but only up to a point. Now I'll be able to face the test on Champ Cars with this exceptional experience under my belt. I thank the Minardi team: if I ever become a real pro I will always remember this day and the people in this team."

Legge said the most difficult part of driving a Formula One was not the physical demands, but the mental part.

"The mental effort to keep everything under control," she said. "It's not true that, for a woman, driving a [Formula One] car is mostly a physical problem. I believed that too and in fact in the last few months, since I knew I would do this test, I did four hours a day in the gym. But what matters is your head." 

The last woman to attempt to compete in Formula One was Italian Giovanna Amati in 1992. She failed to qualify for Brabham and was replaced by Briton Damon Hill who went on to be world champion in 1996.

Team founder Gian Carlo Minardi, who was not left impressed after the first day's crash, praised Legge after her second test.

"I take back everything I said previously on Katherine," said Minardi. "She ran with a quick and especially consistent pace. She was absolutely not worn out physically and I think she can carry on along this route.

"That mistake on the first day was an unavoidable toll, but she reacted by reasoning with a professional calmness and coolness."

After Tuesday's test, Minardi had not been so impressed.

"F1 cars are hard to drive, it's not a joke and it's not comfortable to sit in them. On top of that conditions weren't ideal for a beginner," he said on Tuesday. "The asphalt was very cold and she didn't manage to keep the tyres at the right temperature. We haven't been able to understand if she has the right disposition.

"Here you also need a suitable physical preparation. I don't know if she'll want to change her physique but, since she's very pretty, she could always decide to become a model one day."