Diniz started the season by finishing outside of the points in the opening two races—tenth in Australia and eighth in Brazil. At the Argentine Grand Prix, his car burst into flames after a pit-stop due to its fuel valve sticking open; British newspaper The Sun famously printed the photo alongside the headline "Diniz in the Oven". After failing to finish at Monaco, a race which his teammate Panis won, Diniz scored his first career point with a sixth-place finish at Catalunya. Six straight retirements followed before he scored another sixth-place finish at Monza. Following his poor season with Forti in 1995 little was expected of him for 1996, so there was mild surprise when he managed to out-qualify the better rated Panis at Hockenheim and establish himself as a driver capable of scoring points.