Ricciardo cheers on Lawson at Austin live gig in first public reunion since Racing Bulls split

Daniel Ricciardo sat in the crowd to support Liam Lawson’s live music debut at Inn Cahoots on East Sixth Street in Austin on Thursday night — the first public reunion between the two drivers since Lawson replaced Ricciardo at Racing Bulls in 2024.

Lawson headlined Garage Sessions with Liam Lawson and Friends, part of the Esses Bazaar ATX event held ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. He was joined on stage by his brother Marcus and two childhood friends, Thomas and Harrison, in what the 24-year-old described as his first public performance since he was 11 years old.

Current Racing Bulls team-mate Arvid Lindblad and former team-mate Isack Hadjar were also in attendance, and the team shared photos and videos from the evening on social media, prompting an enthusiastic response from fans.

“I am feeling a lot of things. I mean, I’m excited for… It’s a cool opportunity to do this with my brother and a couple of friends that I’ve grown up playing with,” Lawson told media ahead of the show. “To be honest, we haven’t done this for like 10 years. And obviously, we never really performed, but we grew up playing together when we were very young. So it’s a cool opportunity. But no, I’m sh***ing myself, for sure.”

When asked whether the live performance carried more pressure than a Formula 1 qualifying session, Lawson was unequivocal. “Oh my God, like 10 times more pressure for this. I would happily get in a Formula 1 car and go into Q3 over doing this.”

Fans reacted warmly to the sight of Ricciardo supporting his successor, with one commenting “Racing Bulls giving the people what they want” and another writing “Australasia loves to see it.” A third fan was rather less composed: “OH MY GOD, I’M TOTALLY CALM AND COLLECTED ABOUT THIS (I’m 110% screaming).”

The United States Grand Prix takes place on 25 October at the Circuit of the Americas.