Quote Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1
An interesting piece in Motor Sport this month where Alain Prost talks about having Senna as a team-mate. He suggests that one of Senna's motivations was to match and beat him, and that something significant changed in Senna when Prost retired. He no longer had that "target" to aim for. There's little doubt that when Senna came into F1 Prost was the man to beat, just as when Schumacher made his debut Senna was the man to beat.
I also thought that when he felt that he had finally established total supremacy over Prost (1990/1991), Senna's public persona mellowed somewhat, and he became more of an "elder statesman" figure in F1. This was all a consequence of Ayrton entering Grand Prix racing at a time when Prost was considered the man to beat. As you have said, Senna experienced the flip-side of this when Schumacher arrived on the scene.