By Emily Maxwell - Oct 23, 2026, 8:35 AM ET

Lawson takes the stage in Austin ahead of US GP

Liam Lawson celebrated Formula 1’s return to Austin, Texas — the live music capital of the world — for the United States Grand Prix with an acoustic performance at VCARB’s Garage Sessions event on Thursday night, becoming the first-ever F1 driver to headline a show during a race weekend.

It was his first live performance in more than a decade.

Lawson, who grew up watching his musician dad Jared play gigs around the family's native New Zealand, took the stage at downtown venue Inn Cahoots with younger brother Marcos and some childhood friends for a short set that included covers of Sam Barber’s “Indigo”, John Mayer’s “Daughters” and Sam Fender’s viral hit “Rein Me In” featuring Olivia Dean.

Jonathan Capeci, Scoot Teasley, Jess Farren, Alison Nichols and Drake Milligan joined Lawson and company on the bill.
F1's resident guitarist took the occasion to showcase his newly-debuted LL30 GS Mini SE, which he designed in collaboration with Taylor Guitars. The special edition acoustic is based on Lawson’s go-to travel guitar, a Taylor GS Mini, and features a pink-to-white ombre finish with a custom “30” pickguard and pink bridge pins. A limited run of the model will be available for purchase later this year.

Topics

formula 1

liam lawson

united states grand prix

taylor guitars

ll30 gs mini se

inn cahoots

austin texas

garage sessions

Formula 1

Culture

Emily Maxwell

A longtime motorsport fan, Emily joined RACER with a background in music and chess and a passion for connecting readers to the human side of sport. She has previously written for American Songwriter Magazine, the US Chess Federation and Chess.com, among others. When she’s not watching or writing about racing, you can find her drafting novels, writing songs and yapping about basketball.

Read Emily Maxwell's articles